Venus Archives

An artist's visualization of DAVINCI's descent probe lying on the surface of Venus. - NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Venus

DAVINCI Mission Seeks To Unlock Venus’ Hidden Secrets

by Keith CowingDecember 17, 2024December 17, 2024

NASA’s DAVINCI — Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging — mission embodies the spirit of innovation and exploration that its namesake, Leonardo da Vinci, was famous […]

With the device secured in the heater, the researchers will be able to test how well it works at extreme temperatures. Photo credit: Brenda Ahearn, Michigan Engineering.

Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Missions & Hardware, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors, Venus

Venus Mission Hardware? Battery-like Computer Memory Keeps Working Above 1000°F

by Keith CowingDecember 12, 2024December 12, 2024

Computer memory could one day withstand the blazing temperatures in fusion reactors, jet engines, geothermal wells and sweltering planets using a new solid-state memory device developed by a team of […]

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Reports, Roadmaps, & Plans, Status Report, Venus

A New Strategy for the Exploration of Venus

by Keith CowingDecember 11, 2024December 11, 2024

The 2023-2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey Origins, Worlds, and Life recommended that “NASA develop scientific exploration strategies, as it has for Mars, in areas of broad scientific importance, […]

A schematic illustrating the different planetary models under study. In both models, (A) and (B), the planet has a molten core that contributes negligibly to the tidally dissipated energy (this also stands if the core is differentiated into a solid inner and fluid outer parts). On top of the core lies a viscoelastic solid mantle which can be stratified and further divided into layers of uniform physical properties. Tidal dissipation in this mantle is computed in the solid tidal formalism using ALMA3 (Section 2.1). The solid mantle is enveloped by a fluid magma ocean of unperturbed uniform thickness H, which is the focus of our study. Under tidal forcing of the ocean and the mantle, the ocean’s bottom (top) is displaced vertically by ζ ↓ (ζ ↑ ). This forcing also leads to heating (by virtue of several dissipative mechanisms in reality, but mainly due to friction at the ocean-solid mantle interface, as shown in the sketch). The heating is counteracted by convective cooling. This molten layer can either be the outermost layer of the planet (A), or it can live under a solidified crust (B). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report, Venus

Tides on Lava Worlds: Application to Close-in Exoplanets and the Early Earth-Moon System

by Keith CowingDecember 11, 2024December 11, 2024

Understanding the physics of planetary magma oceans has been the subject of growing efforts, in light of the increasing abundance of Solar system samples and extrasolar surveys. A rocky planet […]

This image was processed from archived Mariner 10 data by JPL engineer Kevin M. Gill.

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Status Report, Venus

A Dry Venusian Interior Constrained By Atmospheric Chemistry

by Keith CowingDecember 9, 2024December 9, 2024

Venus’s climatic history provides powerful constraint on the location of the inner-edge of the liquid-water habitable zone. However, two very different histories of water on Venus have been proposed: one […]

The night side of Venus in thermal infrared. This false-color image uses data from the Japanese Akatsuki’s IR2 camera in two wavelengths, 1.74 and 2.26 microns. Darker regions denote thicker clouds. Changes in color can denote differences in cloud particle size or composition from place to place. Image credit: JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic.

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Exploration Gear & Tech, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Sample Return, Status Report, Venus

Venus Cloud Catcher As A Proof Of Concept Aerosol Collection Instrument

by Keith CowingDecember 8, 2024December 8, 2024

We report on the proof-of-concept of a low-mass, low-power method for collecting micron-sized sulfuric acid aerosols in bulk from the atmosphere of Venus. The collection method uses four wired meshes […]

Intensity raster map with averaged spectral intensity represented in log-scale. Gray dashed lines delimit the region containing the planetary limb. These represent two concentric ellipses centered at (X, Y) = (57″, 39.75″), marked with a red cross. Two vertical dashed lines were included to outline the region of the limb where the atmospheric aureole is observed. Two solid gray lines delimit the location of the solar limb. -- MDPI

Ariel Mission, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Stellar Cartography, Terraforming & Geoengineering, Venus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Rare Venus Solar Transit Helps Unravel Exoplanet Atmospheres

by Keith CowingDecember 6, 2024December 6, 2024

In the next decade, researchers will start probing the atmosphere of planets as small as Earth and Venus orbiting nearby stars. But although these two Solar System planets are similar […]

Venus emerges from its formation in a magma ocean phase (t = 0 Myr). From this point, Venus could have followed one of two possible pathways, each ultimately converging on the planet’s present climate state but leaving a mantle with a different composition: an H-poor interior results from the dry Venus path (upper) and an H-rich interior from the temperate and wet Venus path (lower). In the H-rich interior scenario, volcanic gases are enriched in H2O, whereas in the H-poor case, degassing of H2O is minimal, with a greater release of S and C species. See the text for a detailed description of climatic paths and ‘Signs of climate in the interior’ for an explanation of how H2O oceans are imprinted in the planetary interior. -- University of Cambridge

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Venus

Research Suggests That Venus Never Had Liquid Water On Its Surface

by Keith CowingDecember 3, 2024December 3, 2024

A team of astronomers has found that Venus has never been habitable, despite decades of speculation that our closest planetary neighbour was once much more like Earth than it is […]

Schematic view of the interior of terrestrial planets showing major chemical layers (i.e., the crust, the mantle, and the core subdivided into an outer liquid and an inner solid core). For each terrestrial planet the surface elevation is shown with the same color scale for comparison using orthographic projection. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Mars, Mercury, Moon, Status Report, Venus

Terrestrial Planet Surfaces And Interiors

by Keith CowingNovember 19, 2024November 19, 2024

Rocky planets in our Solar System, namely Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the Moon, which is generally added to this group due to its geological complexity, possess a solid surface […]

Snapshots showing the dynamical evolution of the Solar System in the Grand Tack model. The four gas giants are represented by the black filled circles. Jupiter starts fully formed while the other giants planets grow. Terrestrial planetary embryos are represented by open circles. Water-rich and water-poor planetesimals/asteroids are shown by blue and red small dots, respectively. During the inward migration phase Jupiter shepherds planetesimals and planetary embryos, thus creating a confined disk around 1 AU. Saturn encounters Jupiter and both planets start to migrate outwards at about 100 kyr. During the outward migration phase the giant planets scatter planetesimals inward and repopulate the previously depleted belt with a mix of asteroids originated from different regions. Figure reproduced from Walsh et al. (2011Snapshots showing the dynamical evolution of the Solar System in the Grand Tack model. The four gas giants are represented by the black filled circles. Jupiter starts fully formed while the other giants planets grow. Terrestrial planetary embryos are represented by open circles. Water-rich and water-poor planetesimals/asteroids are shown by blue and red small dots, respectively. During the inward migration phase Jupiter shepherds planetesimals and planetary embryos, thus creating a confined disk around 1 AU. Saturn encounters Jupiter and both planets start to migrate outwards at about 100 kyr. During the outward migration phase the giant planets scatter planetesimals inward and repopulate the previously depleted belt with a mix of asteroids originated from different regions. Figure reproduced from Walsh et al. (2011). -- astro-ph.EP). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Formation Of Terrestrial Planets

by Keith CowingNovember 18, 2024November 18, 2024

Our understanding of the process of terrestrial planet formation has grown markedly over the past 20 years, yet key questions remain. This review begins by first addressing the critical, earliest […]