A document by Kevin T. Trinh. Click on the document to view its contents.

Venus’ steep-sided domes are circular volcanoes ~10s of km wide and ~1 km tall, which are known for their characteristic flat tops and steep sides. However, their composition remains mysterious. These “pancake” domes are likely formed by a high-viscosity lava, and other studies have predicted a range of compositions, from rhyolite to basalt. In this study, we build on previous work modeling pancake domes as spreading viscous gravity currents. However, previous models of dome formation assumed that they form over a rigid lithosphere. We confirmed that lithospheric flexure occurs at pancake domes, and therefore build a new model of dome formation over a bending elastic lithosphere. We find that flexure during formation can influence the shape of the resulting pancake dome. Our results also support the idea that pancake domes continue to spread for a long time after their emplacement. In comparing our model to the topography of a real pancake dome, we find a range of high, though variable, lava viscosities. Our range of lava viscosities is related to the size of the observed dome, and our results for a large dome agree with those of other studies. We test different lava densities and find that a lava density of ~2400 – 2700 kg/m3 best reproduces the flexural signatures observed at pancake domes. Low-density lava (~1500 kg/m3) does not reproduce the flexural signatures, implying that dome-forming lava is not highly vesiculated.

The latest decadal survey identified the Uranus system as the highest-priority new target for a NASA Flagship mission. Ariel and Miranda are potential ocean worlds with evidence of resurfacing potentially due to past elevated heat flow. Learning about the geologic histories of these icy moons is important for understanding the potential for life in the outer solar system. Using limited data acquired by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, we explore open questions about the surfaces of Uranian satellites to gain a better understanding of their evolutionary histories. In this work, we update the estimates of Ariel and Miranda’s simple-to-complex transition diameters, which have not yet been measured using modern GIS techniques and reprocessed data. The simple-to-complex transition diameter is a value used on many worlds to infer the composition of the surface. For the Uranian satellites, this value was last estimated shortly after the Voyager 2 flyby with a dataset of 18 craters. We use reprocessed topography from more than 100 craters to estimate a simple-to-complex transition diameter on Ariel of ~26 km, consistent with an icy surface composition. We place a lower limit of ~49 km on the transition diameter for Miranda, where we cannot identify any complex craters. We also estimate the relative and absolute ages of terrains on Ariel and Miranda. Our results agree with recent studies showing that they likely experienced relatively recent resurfacing. Finally, we suggest imaging requirements for the future mission to Uranus to answer outstanding questions about Ariel and Miranda.

Venus’s thick atmosphere rotates in the same direction as the solid body, but ~60 times faster. This atmospheric superrotation has produced dozens of windblown ejecta deposits (“parabolas”) on the surface of Venus. The formation and modification of parabolas is an interplay between impacts, aeolian erosion, and atmospheric dynamics. We conducted a survey to explore the nature of these sedimentary surface features and obtained three new results. Firstly, we observe trends in parabolas’ morphology that shed light on how they are deposited and eroded. Changes in the size and radar albedo of parabolas are likely linked to the height and density (respectively) of ejecta plumes at time of formation. Next, we discovered that parabolas show orientations inconsistent with present atmospheric dynamics, and thus may record a change in these dynamics or geologically recent true polar wander at a rate of ~1° Myr-1. Lastly, we observe a definitive example of a volcanically embayed parabola, which provides strong evidence for large-scale geologic activity in the recent past. These results provide important insights into the history and character of geologic processes on Venus that will guide observations by upcoming missions. If true polar wander is the cause of the anomalous parabola orientations, then atmospheric superrotation has probably persisted for at least the age of Venus’s surface. This mode of atmospheric circulation is unique to Venus in the inner Solar System, but is likely common to terrestrial exoplanets that are tidally locked in close orbits to their parent stars.

Lightning in the atmosphere of Venus is either ubiquitous, rare, or non-existent, depending on how one interprets diverse observations. Quantifying when and where, or even if lightning occurs would provide novel information about Venus’s atmospheric dynamics and chemistry. Lightning is also a potential risk to future missions, which could float in the cloud layers (~50–70 km above the surface) for up to an Earth-year. Over decades, spacecraft and ground-based telescopes have searched for lightning at Venus using many instruments, including magnetometers, radios, and optical cameras. Two optical surveys (from the Akatsuki orbiter and the 61-inch telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona) observed several flashes at 777 nm (the unresolved triplet emission lines of excited atomic oxygen) that have been attributed to lightning. This conclusion is based, in part, on the statistical unlikelihood of so many meteors producing such energetic flashes, based in turn on the presumption that a low fraction (< 1%) of a meteor’s optical energy is emitted at 777 nm. We use observations of terrestrial meteors and analogue experiments to show that a much higher conversion factor (~5–10%) should be expected. Therefore, we calculate that smaller, more numerous meteors could have caused the observed flashes. Lightning is likely too rare to pose a hazard to missions that pass through or dwell in the clouds of Venus. Likewise, small meteors burn up at altitudes of ~100 km, roughly twice as high above the surface as the clouds, and also would not pose a hazard.

A document by Saira Hamid. Click on the document to view its contents.

In this chapter we examine how our knowledge of present day Venus can inform terrestrial exoplanetary science and how exoplanetary science can inform our study of Venus. In a superficial way the contrasts in knowledge appear stark. We have been looking at Venus for millennia and studying it via telescopic observations for centuries. Spacecraft observations began with Mariner 2 in 1962 when we confirmed that Venus was a hothouse planet, rather than the tropical paradise science fiction pictured. As long as our level of exploration and understanding of Venus remains far below that of Mars, major questions will endure. On the other hand, exoplanetary science has grown leaps and bounds since the discovery of Pegasus 51b in 1995, not too long after the golden years of Venus spacecraft missions came to an end with the Magellan Mission in 1994. Multi-million to billion dollar/euro exoplanet focused spacecraft missions such as JWST, ARIEL and their successors will be flown in the coming decades. At the same time, excitement about Venus exploration is blooming again with a number of confirmed and proposed missions in the coming decades from India, Russia, Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In this chapter, we review what is known and what we may discover tomorrow in complementary studies of Venus and its exoplanetary cousins.

Super-Earth and super-Venus exoplanets may have similar bulk compositions but dichotomous surface conditions and mantle dynamics. Vigorous convection within their metallic cores may produce dynamos and thus magnetospheres if the total heat flow out of the core exceeds a critical value. Earth has a core-hosted dynamo because plate tectonics cools the core relatively rapidly. In contrast, Venus has no dynamo and its deep interior probably cools slowly. Here we develop scaling laws for how planetary mass affects the minimum heat flow required to sustain both thermal and chemical convection, which we compare to a simple model for the actual heat flow conveyed by solid-state mantle convection. We found that the required heat flows increase with planetary mass (to a power of ~0.8–0.9), but the actual heat flow may increase even faster (to a power of ~1.6). Massive super-Earths are likely to host a dynamo in their metallic cores if their silicate mantles are entirely solid. Super-Venuses with relatively slow mantle convection could host a dynamo if their mass exceeds ~1.5 (with an inner core) or ~4 (without an inner core) Earth-masses. However, the mantles of massive rocky exoplanets might not be completely solid. Basal magma oceans may reduce the heat flow across the core-mantle boundary and smother any core-hosted dynamo. Detecting a magnetosphere at an Earth-mass planet probably signals Earth-like geodynamics. In contrast, magnetic fields may not reliably reveal if a massive exoplanet is a super-Earth or a super-Venus. We eagerly await direct observations in the next few decades.

Basal magma oceans develop in Earth and Venus after accretion as their mantles solidify from the middle outwards. Fractional crystallization of the basal mantle is buffered by the core and radiogenic and latent heat in the magma ocean. Previous studies showed that Earth’s basal magma ocean would have solidified after two or three billion years. Venus has a relatively hot interior that cools slowly in the absence of plate tectonics, which reduces heat flow through the solid mantle. Consequentially, the basal magma ocean could remain as thick as ~200-400 km today. Vigorous convection of liquid silicates could power a global magnetic field until recently while a core-hosted dynamo is suppressed. The basal magma ocean may be a hidden reservoir of potassium and other incompatible elements. A high tidal Love number could reveal a basal magma ocean and would definitively establish that the core is at least partially liquid.

Topographic flexure in response to vertical loads reveals key lithospheric properties, including elastic thickness and the heat flow from the interior. Flexural stresses may also control volcano morphology. One previous study predicted that steep-sided domes on Venus usually form where the elastic thickness is ~15-40 km. We surveyed flexural signatures around steep-sided domes and confirmed this hypothesis. We determined elastic thickness from topographic profiles with a curve-fitting algorithm and a plate bending model in Cartesian and axisymmetric geometry. We used a yield stress envelope to convert elastic thickness and plate curvature into mechanical thickness and surface heat flow. The average elastic thickness for domes not near coronae is ~30 km, corresponding to a heat flow of ~60 mW/m2. Coronae on Venus are typically associated with elastic thicknesses of <10-15 km. Domes near coronae yielded elastic thicknesses in this range, and higher heat flows than domes not near coronae.

Within the young solar system, a strong magnetic field permeated the protoplanetary disc. The solar nebular magnetic field is likely the source of magnetization for some meteorites like the CM and CV chondrites, which underwent aqueous alternation on their parent bodies before the solar nebular field dissipated. Since aqueous alteration produced magnetic minerals (e.g. magnetite and pyrrhotite), the meteorites could have acquired a chemical remanent magnetization from the nebular field while part of their respective parent bodies. However, questions about the formation history of the parent bodies that produced magnetized CM and CV chondrites await answers—including whether the parent bodies exhibit a detectable magnetic field today. Here, we use thermal evolution models to show that a parent body of the CM chondrites could record ancient magnetic fields and, perhaps, exhibit strong present-day crustal remanent fields. An undisturbed planetesimal would experience one of three thermal evolution cases with respect to the lifetime of the nebular field. First, if a planetesimal formed too late for 26Al-driven water ice melting to occur before the solar nebula dissipates, then aqueous alteration would not occur in the presence of the nebular field and result in no magnetization (Fig. panel a). Second, if a planetesimal forms early enough to undergo alteration before the nebula dissipates but not enough to heat beyond the blocking temperature(s) of the magnetic mineral(s), then nearly the entire planetesimal could be magnetized (Fig. panel b). Lastly, if a planetesimal forms early enough to undergo alteration and subsequently heats beyond the blocking temperature, then any magnetization would be erased except for a thin shell near the surface (Fig. panel c). Our thermal model results suggest that planetesimals that formed between ~2.7 and 3.7 Myr after CAIs could acquire large-scale magnetization. Spacecraft missions could detect this magnetization if it is at the strength recorded in CM chondrites and if it is coherent at scales of tens of kilometers. In-situ magnetometer measurements of chondritic asteroids could help link magnetized asteroids to magnetized meteorites. Specifically, a spacecraft detection of remanent magnetization at 2 Pallas would bolster the claim that 2 Pallas is a parent body of CM chondrites.

Venus is the planet in the Solar System most similar to Earth in terms of size and (probably) bulk composition. Until the mid-20th century, scientists thought that Venus was a verdant world—inspiring science-fictional stories of heroes battling megafauna in sprawling jungles. At the start of the Space Age, people learned that Venus actually has a hellish surface, baked by the greenhouse effect under a thick, CO2-rich atmosphere. In popular culture, Venus was demoted from a jungly playground to (at best) a metaphor for the redemptive potential of extreme adversity. However, whether Venus was much different in the past than it is today remains unknown. In this review, we show how now-popular models for the evolution of Venus mirror how the scientific understanding of modern Venus has changed over time. Billions of years ago, Venus could have had a clement surface with water oceans. Venus perhaps then underwent at least one dramatic transition in atmospheric, surface, and interior conditions before present day. This review kicks off a topical collection about all aspects of Venus’s evolution and how understanding Venus can teach us about other planets, including exoplanets. Here we provide the general background and motivation required to delve into the other manuscripts in this collection. Finally, we discuss how our ignorance about the evolution of Venus motivated the prioritization of new spacecraft missions that will essentially rediscover Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor—beginning a new age of Venus exploration.