Scientists have found the key to unraveling the mystery of the origin of "coronas" on the second planet from the Sun, UNN reports with reference to Space.
Details
Venus and Earth are considered "twin" planets because they have approximately the same size, volumetric density, and distance from the Sun. But the surface of both planets confirms different evolutionary paths. One such difference is the giant geological formations - "coronas", of which more than 700 types have been found and mapped on the surface of Venus.
It recently became known that research scientists have understood the source of the origin, or rather the formation, of this unique phenomenon. Crown-shaped geological features have an explanation, perhaps even a simple one. As the Space publication indicates, the essence of the formation is as follows:
- A "glass ceiling" in Venus's mantle traps heat and causes slow, fluctuating currents;
- it is these currents that lead to the formation of crown-shaped surface features on this planet.
Comments Madeleine Kerr, a postdoctoral researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of San Diego and lead author of the study.
There's a pattern on Venus that tells us something. We believe that what we've found is the key to unlocking the mystery of the origin of these coronas
There are also hypotheses that link the formation of Venusian coronas, with a diameter of more than 500 kilometers, to mantle and tectonic processes, such as subduction and delamination of denser parts of the Earth's crust.
Smaller coronas, about 200 km in diameter, can be linked to smaller hot upwellings in the mantle.
David Stegman, professor of geological sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of San Diego, and also one of the authors of the study, also explains.
The current state of knowledge about the planet Venus is analogous to the pre-plate tectonics era of the 1960s, as we currently lack an equivalent unifying theory capable of linking how heat transfer from the planet's interior manifests in the tectonics and magmatic features observed on Venus's surface
Recall
Astronomers have discovered 128 new moons orbiting Saturn. This cemented its leadership in the list of solar system planets with the most moons.