Earth's hot twin just got hotter: New discovery on Venus revealed
Astronomers have long been fascinated by Venus and how it turned into the hellish world that it today from once being similar to Earth with flowing oceans and a healthy ecosystem.A new study now reveals new details about the crust on Venus, which include some surprises about the geology of Earth's hotter twin.A new study, published in Nature Communications, proposes a crust metamorphism process based on rock density and melting cycles underway on the planet. This contrasts expectations that the outermost layer of Venus' crust would grow thicker and thicker over time given its apparent lack of forces that would drive the crust back into the planet's interior.advertisement
Venus has a crust that is all one piece, with no evidence of subduction caused by plate tectonics like on Earth.Earth's rocky crust is made up of massive plates that slowly move, forming folds and faults in a process known as plate tectonics. The rocks making up the bottom plate experience changes caused by increasing temperature and pressure as it sink deeper into the interior of the planet. Those changes are known as metamorphism.
New details about the crust on Venus include some surprises. (Photo: Nasa)
The team analysed that Venus's crust is about 40 kilometres thick on average and at most 65 kilometres thick.advertisement'That is surprisingly thin, given conditions on the planet. It turns out that, according to our models, as the crust grows thicker, the bottom of it becomes so dense that it either breaks off and becomes part of the mantle or gets hot enough to melt," Nasa's Justin Filiberto, co-author of the paper explained.Astronomers said that while Venus has no moving plates, its crust does experience metamorphism. This finding is an important step toward understanding geological processes and the evolution of the planet.'This breaking off or melting can put water and elements back into the planet's interior and help drive volcanic activity. This gives us a new model for how material returns to the interior of the planet and another way to make lava and spur volcanic eruptions. It resets the playing field for how the geology, crust, and atmosphere on Venus work together," Filiberto added.The discovery comes at a time when India is also readying a Venus mission, dubbed Shukrayaan, to be launched by the end of this decade.Must Watch
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