Scientists have uncovered fresh evidence that Venus is not dead — geologically speaking. Venus and Earth are similar in size and were bombarded by comparable amounts of water billions of years ago. This shared origin has long fueled one of planetary science’s biggest questions: Why did Venus become a hellish, uninhabitable world while Earth flourished into a cradle for life?
Now, more than three decades after NASA’s Magellan spacecraft mapped Venus’ surface, scientists have found signs of hot material rising from the planet’s interior, indicating that its crust is still being sculpted from within.
The findings, published May 14 in the journal Science Advances, add to a growing body of evidence that Venus, despite lacking Earth’s plate tectonics, may share more internal dynamics with our planet than scientists previously thought.
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