Despite surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead, lava-spewing volcanoes, and puffy clouds of sulfuric acid, uninhabitable Venus offers vital lessons about the potential for life on other planets, a […]
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![Schematic depiction of the primary convection regimes observed or theorized on terrestrial planets in the Solar System. The three end-members, in this representation, are Plate Tectonics (PT), Stagnant Lid (SL) and Plutonic-Squishy Lid (PSL). Episodic Lid (EL) is an intermediate regime between PT and SL. While the current regimes of Earth, Mercury and Mars are well defined, Venus’ is still uncertain and could range from EL to PSL, or may have transitioned recently (a few 100s Myr) into SL. Mercury is in a later stage of SL compared to Mars because it has cooled down significantly faster. The state of the convection regimes of the planets should not be considered static. Instead, it evolves with time, and the figure can be interpreted as a snapshot of their presentday state. The axis are not fully independent and should be thought of as possible observables. The convection regime figures are adapted from [102]. -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Interior-Controls-On-The.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
