The Final Real Images Of Venus - What Have We Found?

have you ever wondered if some of the most exciting scientific discoveries can be made from data stored for decades that's exactly what happened when NASA's Magellan spacecraft took pictures of Venus more than 30 years ago at the time scientists were focused on mapping the planet's surface and studying its dense atmosphere but what they didn't realize was that they were capturing something far more extraordinary images taken more than 30 years ago led to a sudden Discovery beneath the dense poisonous clouds of Venus all this time lay a great fire Secret active volcanoes this groundbreaking discovery changes our understanding not only of Venus but also of other planets in our solar system and beyond [Music] Venus the second planet from the sun is often called Earth's evil twin because of its similar size and composition however while Earth is a refuge for Life Venus is a planet of extremes with a diameter of about 7521 miles Venus is almost the same size as Earth but it's much closer to the Sun with an average distance of about 67 million miles which is about 1 8 closer than our home planet this proximity means that Venus has a much hotter environment than Earth with surface temperatures that can reach 880 degrees Fahrenheit this makes it the hottest planet in our solar system even hotter than Mercury which is much closer to the Sun one of the key factors contributing to Venus's high temperatures is its dense atmosphere consisting mostly of carbon dioxide and nitrogen this atmosphere creates a powerful greenhouse effect trapping heat and causing temperatures to rise in addition the dense clouds of sulfuric acid that envelop the planet contribute to its intense Heating despite its harsh conditions Venus has long fascinated scientists who have sought to study its unique characteristics and understand its history over the years researchers have made many discoveries about Venus including the fact that it is the only planet in our solar system that rotates clockwise on its axis moreover the atmosphere of Venus is dominated by the rapid rotation of the cloud layer which rotates much faster than the planet itself this Zone rotates in just four Earth days while the planet itself takes a leisurely 243 days to complete a full rotation both rotations occur in retrograde Direction defying the Norms of the solar system in the context of Venus this means that the planet and its atmosphere move in a direction opposite to the rotation of the Sun and most other planets in the solar system now this natural convectional motion known as super rotation begins at about six miles and steadily increases up to 40 miles where the equatorial winds reach a terrifying speed of 335 miles per hour gradually slowing down as they climb to higher altitudes it seems that the atmosphere of Venus or at least the cloud layer rotates about 50 times faster than the planet itself and this fascinating phenomenon probably influenced the rotation of the planet but here's the catch the mass of Venus's atmosphere is only one ten thousandth of the planet's mass so how could that be there must have been an exchange of velocities between the planet and the atmosphere to conserve total kinetic energy the mystery remains unsolved also despite the planet's scorching heat and harsh environmental conditions the temperature on the planet's surface is almost constant and uniform due to the winds that sweep across its surface and ensure that heat spreads evenly during the venusian night which lasts about 58 Earth days the surface temperature drops only slightly however the temperature changes with altitude the atmosphere at 62 miles ranges from positive 81 degrees Fahrenheit during the day to negative 225 degrees Fahrenheit at night Venus's atmosphere is massive more than 100 times the weight of the Earth's atmosphere the huge mass of Venus's atmosphere also has great thermal inertia which largely explains the homogeneity of the temperature on the planet's surface in which one can observe an analogy with the water of Earth's oceans Venus's atmosphere has a density of about one-tenth the density of water which together with the corrosive composition of the atmosphere is responsible for a level of erosion comparable to a river for all that there's almost no wind at the planet's surface barely exceeding the speed of a few miles per hour being stronger at the equator and weaker toward the poles they create a visible v-shaped structure and Cloud layer images however much of Venus's pre-history remains a mystery for example although it's known that the planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago it's unclear how it evolved to become the hot hostile world we know today some scientists speculate the volcanic activity may have played a significant role in the shaping of the planet's environment with eruptions releasing gases that contributed to the dense atmosphere we see today over the years scientists have made many observations of Venus from both Earth and spacecraft some of the earliest recorded observations date back to ancient times when astronomers such as the Greek philosopher Pythagoras and the Roman poet Ovid documented their observations of Venus in the night sky however it wasn't until the 20th century that scientists were able to study Venus in more detail in 1961 the Soviet Union launched the first spacecraft to visit Venus called Venera one although the spacecraft could not successfully land on Venus it provided valuable data on the planet's magnetic field and radiation environment subsequent missions including the Soviet Union's Venera and Vega missions and the U.S Mariner and Magellan missions provided even more detailed data on Venus despite these successes however the study of Venus has proven to be a major challenge for scientists the planet's dense atmosphere makes it difficult to see its surface and its harsh conditions make it difficult for spacecraft to exist for long periods of time the Soviet Union's Venera 13 Landing module which successfully landed on Venus in 1982 lasted only about two hours before falling victim to intense heat and pressure NASA's Magellan spacecraft arrived at Venus in 1990. and spent four years mapping the planet's surface with radar a spacecraft collected an enormous amount of data including detailed images of the planet's surface and data on its topography gravity and magnetic fields only more than 30 years later in 2021 scientists made an incredible Discovery when they re-analyzed the data collected by Magellan the presence of active volcanoes on Venus the discovery was made by a team of researchers led by Anna Gilcher of The Institute of geophysics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich the researchers analyze Magellan radar data and identified features on the surface of Venus that suggested the presence of recent volcanic activity the team also examined images taken by the spacecraft and found evidence of lava flows and other volcanic features but how did scientists determine the presence of active volcanoes on Venus from data collected more than 30 years ago one key factor was the use of new Imaging techniques and algorithms that allowed researchers to extract more detailed information from the data collected by Magellan by analyzing radar data the researchers were able to identify changes on the surface of Venus that were probably caused by volcanic activity they also found evidence of elevated surface temperatures in the same locations further supporting the idea that there are active volcanoes on the planet moreover quite recently in March of this year scientist Robert R Herrick of the geophysical Institute University of Alaska Fairbanks and Scott Hensley of the jet propulsion laboratory California Institute of Technology conducted a similar study in an article in science they discussed how volcanic activity on Venus has been obscured by the lack of observable eruptions however the authors used images from the same Magellan spacecraft to study volcanic areas on Venus thanks to images taken between 1990 and 1992. a manual search was conducted in areas previously identified as probable manifestations of active volcanism the authors searched for volcanic formations like cones Vents and lava flows that had appeared or changed between images to create a detailed topographic map they used a technique called stereo radar grammatory they also made the images look as if they had been taken directly over the observation object using a process called orthogonal transformation the paper also describes a direct simulation distant view of images of the appearance of surface objects at different viewing geometries which were then compared with similar versions of the images as a consequence they found that the vent of a volcano in the atla Regio region it changed dramatically in less than a year same opening doubled in size and became deformed with a lake of lava filling the edge eight months later this discovery May provide insight into the evolution of Venus and the differences between its Landscapes and that of Earth since it was originally thought that the surface of Venus like that of Earth had water however it's not entirely clear whether volcanism is currently active or not the low level of detection suggests that Venus is less volcanically active even Jupiter satellite IO only about 1.5 percent of the surface area of Venus has been studied given the missing and poor data the recent discovery of active volcanoes on Venus is a breakthrough of great importance to the field of planetary science one major implication is that it challenges the common view of Venus as a geologically dead Planet the presence of active volcanoes means that Venus is still geologically active which opens up new possibilities for studying the formation and evolution of the surface of rocky planets another potential consequence of the discovery of active volcanoes on Venus is the possibility of detecting microbial life on the planet volcanic activity on Earth is often associated with the presence of microbial life and the same may be true on Venus although conditions on Venus are harsh the temperature is high enough to melt lead and a dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide it is possible that microbial life may have adapted to survive in those extreme conditions as for future research missions the discovery of active volcanoes on Venus has already generated considerable interest among planetary scientists there are plans for future missions to Venus such as the Veritas and DaVinci plus missions the Veritas mission is led by NASA's jet propulsion laboratory and will be launched within a decade to study Venus from its surface to its core to understand how a rocky planet the size of Earth took an entirely different path the Veritas Mission will use the state-of-the-art synthetic aperture radar to create three-dimensional global maps and a near-infrared spectrometer to determine surface composition the spacecraft will also measure the planet's gravitational field to determine the structure of Venus's interior The DaVinci plus mission on the other hand is a complement to the veritas NASA plans to launch it to study the atmosphere and geology of Venus while the Veritas Orbiter will orbit Venus and capture data from the above the da Vinci descending sphere will descend through Venus's atmosphere to measure its composition as well as study clouds winds and surface features of the planet the sphere will also capture high resolution images of Venus's surface as it descends providing valuable information about the planet's geology and geophysics unfortunately there have not been many missions to Venus in the last 30 years in fact funding for Planetary Exploration has been cut and New Missions to Venus will not start until the 2030s but with each Discovery we're one step closer to unraveling the processes that shaped our own planet Earth in addition the study of Venus provides valuable information about exoplanets outside our solar system because many exoplanets are similar to Venus studying this planet can help scientists determine the potential habitability of other worlds the recent discovery of active volcanoes on Venus is just the tip of the iceberg but it underscores the importance and complexity of studying and analyzing large amounts of old data although this is just one event the data may contain other discoveries waiting to be revealed it is important to note that tools for processing and comparing large amounts of data were not available until recently this provides a huge field for anyone interested in astronomy or planetary science to conduct their own research and make discoveries even without expensive equipment anyone can contribute to this field by working hard and with dedication [Music]

Channel: Space Matters

Views: 212,035

Keywords: venus, nasa, life on venus, space matters, universe, real images, real images of planets, solar system, magellan, space, venera 13, documentary

Id: oGYuZtwzD3I

Length: 16min 3sec (963 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 23 2023