Skip to main content

New evidence questions whether Venus ever had oceans on its surface

Recently, new research surprised astronomers and the public by suggesting that millions of years ago, Venus could have been a hospitable planet with lower temperatures allowing water to exist on its surface. That would have made it more Earth-like, and some people argued it could even have supported life.

A composite image of the planet Venus as seen by the Japanese probe Akatsuki. Astronomers are debating whether this now-scorching planet could once have been cool enough for liquid water to exist on its surface. Image from the Akatsuki Orbiter, built by Institute of Space and Astronautical Science/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

However, a new study of lava flows on the surface of Venus suggests these ideas are mistaken, and that Venus was not warm and wet after all. Researchers from the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), part of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), used data from observations of the planet to investigate how volcanic lava flowed over the surface.

Recommended Videos

Previously, scientists thought that the highlands on Venus were made of granite, the same as the continents here on Earth. Granite highlands require oceans of water in order to form, which is one reason scientists thought that the planet must have had surface water.

The LPI team looked at a volcanic flow in the Ovda Regio highlands region, using radar data to see how the flow moved. They found the flow was likely not made of granite as they had expected. In fact, it is likely made of basaltic lava. Basaltic lava does not require water to form, so while finding it doesn’t rule out the possibility of oceans on Venus, it does weaken some supporting evidence for the theory.

A close-up of the lava flow in the Ovda Regio highlands region, with a dark line imposed on top to show the margin of the flow. NASA

“We know so little about Venus’ surface,” team member Dr. Allan Treiman, a USRA scientist at the LPI, said in a statement. “If the Ovda Regio highlands are made of basaltic rock as is most of Venus, they were likely squeezed up to their current heights by internal forces, possibly like mountains which result from plate tectonics on Earth.”

The findings have been published in a paper in the journal JGR Planets.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
We finally know exactly how long a day on Venus lasts
An image of Venus compiled using data from the Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974

An image of Venus compiled using data from the Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974 NASA/JPL-Caltech

As Venus is right next door to Earth, you might assume that we know all about our neighbor in the solar system. But in fact, there's much we don't know about this planet, due to factors like the thick layer of sulfuric acid clouds which hide most of its surface. And there are some seemingly basic questions about the planet that we don't have answers to -- including exactly how long a Venusian day is.

Read more
Gorgeous image of Venus snapped by the Parker Solar Probe on its way past
When flying past Venus in July 2020, Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument, short for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow — light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside. The prominent dark feature in the center of the image is Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland region on the Venusian surface. Bright streaks in WISPR, such as the ones seen here, are typically caused by a combination of charged particles — called cosmic rays — sunlight reflected by grains of space dust, and particles of material expelled from the spacecraft’s structures after impact with those dust grains. The number of streaks varies along the orbit or when the spacecraft is traveling at different speeds, and scientists are still in discussion about the specific origins of the streaks here. The dark spot appearing on the lower portion of Venus is an artifact from the WISPR instrument.

When flying past Venus in July 2020, Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument, short for Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow — light emitted by oxygen atoms high in the atmosphere that recombine into molecules in the nightside. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory/Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher

NASA has shared this gorgeous image of Venus, captured by the Parker Solar Probe on a flyby of the planet in July last year. The probe's main mission is to explore the sun up close and learn about its corona, but it also regularly passes Venus as it uses the planet's gravity to adjust its orbit. The researchers staffing the mission don't let these flybys go to waste, and use the probe's instruments to learn about Venus as well on their way by.

Read more
Earth is at its closest to the sun today: It’s perihelion day
The sun

Everyone knows the Earth goes around the sun, but something you might not know is that its orbit isn't perfectly circular. Earth orbits in a slight ellipsis, so it isn't always the same distance from the sun: sometimes it comes closer, and sometimes it's further away. Today, Saturday, January 2, the Earth is at its closest point to the sun, in an event called the perihelion.

At its perihelion, the Earth will be just 91.5 million miles from the sun, compared to its further point (called the aphelion, which will happen on July 5 this year) when it is 94.5 million miles away. According to NASA, the distance between the sun and the Earth varies by around 3 million miles throughout the year, which is 13 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

Read more