DLR: Recent Active Lava Flows on Idunn Mons of Venus

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

DLR: Recent Active Lava Flows on Idunn Mons of Venus

Post by bystander » Tue Oct 18, 2016 2:17 pm

Recently Active Lava Flows on Eastern Flank of Idunn Mons on Venus
German Aerospace Center (DLR) | 2016 Oct 17
[c][imghover=http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/Portaldata/1/R ... e_2_xl.jpg]http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/Portaldata/1/R ... e_1_xl.jpg[/imghover]Surface Warmth on a Venus Volcano - Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA
This figure shows the volcanic peak Idunn Mons in the Imdr Regio area of Venus.
The colored overlay shows the heat patterns derived from surface brightness data
collected by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS),
aboard the European Space Agency's Venus Express. Red-orange is the warmest
area and purple is the coolest. The red areas indicate recent volcanic activity.
[/c][hr][/hr]
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Venus Express mission has provided a great amount of data from the surface and atmosphere of Earth's inner twin planet. Among these observations was the mapping of the southern hemisphere of Venus in the near infrared spectral range using the VIRTIS (Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) instrument. However, the thick and permanent cloud cover of Venus limits the achievable resolution, similar to observing a scene through fog. Using a numerical model, planetary researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) pushed the limits of the data resolution. With this new technique, the emissivity anomalies were analysed on the top and eastern flank of Idunn Mons, a volcano with a diameter of 200 kilometres at its base situated in the southern hemisphere of Venus. These anomalies provide an indication of geologically recent volcanism in this area. "We could identify and map distinctive lava flows from the top and eastern flank of the volcano, which might have been recently active in terms of geologic time," says Piero D'Incecco, the DLR planetary researcher ...
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

Post Reply