A search of old files leads to an "exciting discovery" on the surface of Venus

 For the first time in history, NASA scientists discovered volcanic activity on the surface of Venus. The activity was discovered after examining radar images of the "Earth Twins" taken by NASA's Magellan mission more than 30 years ago. The images revealed a change in the shape of a volcanic vent and an increase in its size over a period of less than a year, according to the American news station "Fox News".

Digging up the past

• Robert Herrick, a research professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who led the search for the archival data, said in a statement: "I was inspired by NASA's selection of the VERITAS mission to search for recent volcanic activity in the Magellan data."
• He added, "I really did not expect to be successful, but after about 200 hours of manually comparing images of the different Magellan orbits, I saw two images of the same area 8 months apart, showing alarming geological changes resulting from a volcanic eruption."

The next step after 10 years

It will launch the "Veritas" mission to start the process of spectroscopy of Venus, within a decade from now, and will send an orbiter to study the planet near Earth, from surface to depth. The geological changes spotted occurred in Alta Reggio, a highland region near the planet's equator that is home to the Oza Mons volcano and the Mat Mons volcano.

The moment of exciting discovery

• While the area was long thought to be volcanically active, there has been no direct evidence of recent activity.
• While looking at images of Magellan, Herrick identified a vent, associated with the Matt Mons volcano, that changed dramatically between February and October 1991.
• In the February image, the vent appears nearly circular and shows signs of lava draining down the outer slopes.
• After 8 months, the same vent had become distorted and filled to the brim with a lake of lava.
• After collaborating with JPL's Scott Hensley, the researchers created computer models and concluded that the volcanic eruption was "certainly" responsible for the change.