Latest discovery: Venus is still "alive", what does this mean?

On March 15, the journal Science published a discovery by a group of scientists: by studying the data sent back by NASA's Magellan Venus probe last century, they found signs of volcanic activity on Venus. The scientists declared that this was an astonishing discovery.

You know, after analyzing the surface data of Venus sent back by probes, many scientists have believed that Venus may have been "dead" long ago.

This time, scientists analyzed the radar data of the Atla Regio region on the surface of Venus collected and sent back by Magellan. By comparing the volcanic vent images of the two largest volcanoes from 1990 to 1992, they made an amazing discovery: in the two images of the same coordinates taken eight months apart, the shape of the landform has changed, indicating that the two volcanoes are still having magma eruptions or flows and are still "alive"!

Scientists have long known that Venus is full of volcanoes through exploration in the last century, but whether these volcanoes are still "alive" has always been controversial, with no conclusive evidence to deny or confirm. Now if it is confirmed that Venus' volcanoes are still erupting and magma is still flowing, it will undoubtedly show that Venus is "not dead" and energy activities are still going on.

So, what is the significance of discovering that Venus still has volcanic activity and is still "alive"? Will it mean that mankind will turn its attention from Mars to Venus and open up Venus as the preferred base for human immigration?

The answer is of course no, because Venus has long been judged to be a place more terrifying than hell.

When humans were still in their infancy and space travel was still a dream, many people had beautiful fantasies about Venus because Venus is so similar to Earth: it is about the same size as Earth, with a diameter of about 0.95 times that of Earth and a mass of about 0.81 times that of Earth; and it is the closest planet to us, with a distance of only 42 million kilometers at its closest point.

Therefore, people have always thought that Venus is the sister or brother planet of the Earth. When the space age just began in the last century, superpowers such as the United States and the Soviet Union rushed to send probes to Venus to explore. The results were disappointing. Not only were there no "Venusians", but even a bacterium or a cell could not survive there.

Because the environment there is so horrible, even more terrifying than the legendary Avici Hell.

Although there is an atmosphere there, it is mainly carbon dioxide, accounting for 96%, and its concentration is more than ninety times that of the Earth's atmosphere. Therefore, the surface there has to withstand more than ninety atmospheres of pressure, which is like the pressure of the sea thousands of meters deep on Earth; carbon dioxide generates thick sulfuric acid clouds, making Venus opaque, and severe thunderstorms accompanied by heavy rains formed by concentrated sulfuric acid will corrode and wash away everything on the surface; the greenhouse effect causes the surface temperature to reach four or five hundred degrees Celsius, and any organic matter will be steamed and scorched.

In other words, it is a planet that has long been "dead". Some people say that this is the future of the Earth.

As a result, scientists lost interest in Venus and turned their attention to Mars, a planet farther away, colder and smaller than Venus. They found that although the environment there is also cruel, it is still possible to transform and utilize it. Since then, Mars has been identified as the first choice for human beings to colonize the extraterrestrial world. Scientists are trying to find ways to divide the basket of eggs and seeds of mankind into two baskets to prevent it from being suddenly destroyed on Earth one day.

There are many scientific speculations and conjectures about why Venus is what it is now, and the most widely accepted one is that it is caused by the greenhouse effect. Some studies believe that 10 to 20 billion years ago, Venus had oceans and even microbial life. Later, as the temperature of the sun rose, the greenhouse effect became stronger and stronger, the oceans evaporated, and Venus gradually became what it is now.

There are more than 1,600 large volcanoes or volcanic features discovered on Venus, and countless small volcanoes, estimated to be between 100,000 and 1 million. It is hard to imagine what a hellish scene it would be during the period of volcanic activity on Venus, with eruptions one after another and global lava jets. Perhaps this is one of the main reasons for the formation of Venus's dense carbon dioxide atmosphere and greenhouse effect?

However, this huge and intense volcanic activity seems to have died down a long time ago, and scientists have not found any evidence of active volcanoes. This discovery shows that the volcano is not completely "dead", and some are still active, at least a small part of it is still active.

This discovery certainly won't make any major changes to the hellish image of Venus, but its significance is still significant, otherwise scientists wouldn't call this discovery "amazing." Because this discovery is helpful to unravel the past of Venus and understand how it has become what it is today step by step.

In addition, it can also help scientists learn more about the evolution of the Earth and the planets outside the solar system. Now, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered, and the number of discoveries is still increasing. Many of these planets are similar to Venus. Therefore, studying Venus is of great significance to human beings' better understanding of the universe.

Some major discoveries on Venus, including the discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus and the current discovery of volcanic activity, have rekindled scientists' interest in exploring Venus, and some research institutions have turned their attention to Venus while paying attention to Mars.

For example, NASA has formulated a plan to re-explore Venus, announcing that it will launch two Venus probes in the next 10 years, namely the VERITAS and DAVINCI+ missions. One will orbit Venus as a satellite, and the other will pass through the atmosphere to reach the surface of Venus for precise measurements.

Some space agencies in Europe and Japan are also eager to try, but it is still unknown whether my country has such a plan. In short, although Mars has become a hot topic now, scientists have not completely abandoned Venus. Perhaps in the near future, Venus will bring people more new highlights and surprises. What do you think about this? Welcome to discuss.

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