What type of surface does venus have

In winter, the tilt means the rays are less direct. No such luck on Venus: Its very slight tilt is only three degrees, which is too little to produce noticeable seasons. A critical question for scientists who search for life among the stars: How do habitable planets get their start? The close similarities of early Venus and Earth, and their very different fates, provide a kind of test case for scientists who study planet formation. Similar size, similar interior structure, both harboring oceans in their younger days.

Yet one is now an inferno, while the other is the only known world — so far — to play host to abundant life. The factors that set these planets on almost opposite paths began, most likely, in the swirling disk of gas and dust from which they were born.

Somehow, 4. Several might well have moved in closer, or farther out, as the solar system formed. If we could slice Venus and Earth in half, pole to pole, and place them side by side, they would look remarkably similar.

Each planet has an iron core enveloped by a hot-rock mantle; the thinnest of skins forms a rocky, exterior crust. On both planets, this thin skin changes form and sometimes erupts into volcanoes in response to the ebb and flow of heat and pressure deep beneath.

Other possible similarities will require further investigation — and perhaps another visit to a planet that has hosted many Earth probes, both in orbit and briefly on the surface. Subduction is believed to be the first step in creating plate tectonics. Magellan saw a land of extreme volcanism.

The orbiter saw a relatively young surface, one recently reshaped in geologic terms , and chains of towering mountains. The broiling surface of Venus has been a topic of heated discussion among planetary scientists.

The traditional picture includes a catastrophic, planetwide resurfacing between and million years ago. In other words, Venus appears to have completely erased most traces of its early surface. The causes: volcanic and tectonic forces, which could include surface buckling and massive eruptions.

But newer estimates made with help from computer models paint a different portrait. While the same forces would be at work, resurfacing would be piecemeal over an extended time. The average age of surface features could be as young as million years, with some older surfaces mixed in.

Venus is a landscape of valleys and high mountains dotted with thousands of volcanoes. Its surface features — most named for both real and mythical women — include Ishtar Terra, a rocky, highland area around the size of Australia near the north pole, and an even larger, South-America-sized region called Aphrodite Terra that stretches across the equator. One mountain reaches 36, feet 11 kilometers , higher than Mt.

Notably, except for Earth, Venus has by far the fewest impact craters of any rocky planet, revealing a young surface.

Or stroll through a deep canyon, Diana, named for the Roman goddess of the hunt. Tesserae, terrain with intricate patterns of ridges and grooves that suggest the scorching temperatures make rock behave in some ways more like peanut butter beneath a thin and strong chocolate layer on Venus.

The Soviet Union landed 10 probes on the surface of Venus, but even among the few that functioned after landing, the successes were short-lived — the longest survivor lasted two hours; the shortest, 23 minutes. Photos snapped before the landers fried show a barren, dim, and rocky landscape, and a sky that is likely some shade of sulfur yellow. With the hottest surface in the solar system, apart from the Sun itself, Venus is hotter even than the innermost planet, charbroiled Mercury.

To outlive the short-lived Venera probes, your rambling sojourn on Venus would presumably include unimaginably strong insulation as temperatures push toward degrees Fahrenheit Celsius. You would need an extremely thick, pressurized outer shell to avoid being crushed by the weight of the atmosphere — which would press down on you as if you were 0.

The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide — the same gas driving the greenhouse effect on Venus and Earth — with clouds composed of sulfuric acid.

Volcanoes often occur along these areas of weakened crust. The tight pattern of bright and dark ripples in the center of this image is an area where loose material was sculpted by the gentle surface winds into dunes. The bright streaks of material curve away from small hills, revealing which way the winds were blowing. Stronger winds caused by meteorite impacts may also help create such features.

Unlike Earth, Venus shows no evidence of plate tectonics the movement of large pieces of crust , a process that helps release interior heat. One way Venus releases heat is by the formation of a large number of features called coronae, circular patterns of fractures thought to form when hot material beneath the crust pushes up, warping the surface.

Coronae are often accompanied by vast lava flows. The mantle is probably rocky, and the core is probably somewhat liquid. But despite the planets' similarities, the magnetic field of Venus is far weaker than on Earth's. The reasons for that may have to do with the core. Part of it could simply have to do with motion. The planet spins very slowly — once every Earth days — and the core may not spin fast enough to create a magnetic field the way the core of Earth and other planets do.

The core may also be completely solid, or may not even exist at all. Taking readings on the interior of another planet is a significant challenge. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community space.

Nola Taylor Tillman is a contributing writer for Space. She loves all things space and astronomy-related, and enjoys the opportunity to learn more.