金星上活火山的证据

2020 January 14

Evidence of an Active Volcano on Venus
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, ESA, Venus Express: VIRTIS, USRA, LPI

Explanation: Are volcanoes still active on Venus? More volcanoes are known on Venus than Earth, but when Venusian volcanoes last erupted is not directly known. Evidence bolstering very recent volcanism on Venus has recently been uncovered, though, right here on Earth. Lab results showed that images of surface lava would become dim in the infrared in only months in the dense Venusian atmosphere, a dimming not seen in ESA’s Venus Express images. Venus Express entered orbit around Venus in 2006 and remained in contact with Earth until 2014. Therefore, the infrared glow (shown in false-color red) recorded by Venus Express for Idunn Mons and featured here on a NASA Magellan image indicates that this volcano erupted very recently — and is still active today. Understanding the volcanics of Venus might lead to insight about the volcanics on Earth, as well as elsewhere in our Solar System.

金星上活火山的证据
影像来源：NASA, JPL-Caltech, ESA, Venus Express: VIRTIS, USRA, LPI

说明：金星的火山还在活动吗？金星上的火山比地球要多，但还不清楚它们最后一次的喷发出现在何时。不过，最近在地球上发现了揭示金星最近火山活动的证据。实验室结果显示，在浓密的金星大气中，表面熔岩的红外图像在几个月内就会黯淡下来，但在欧空局金星快车探测器获取的图像中却没有观察到这种变暗过程。金星快车于2006年进入环绕金星的轨道，并在2014年前一直与地球保持联系。将金星快车记录到的Idunn山上的红外辉光(以红色假彩色显示)合成显示在这幅NASA麦哲伦探测器的图像上，表明这座火山前不久刚刚喷发过，且至今依然活跃。对金星火山活动的研究还可以增进我们对地球和太阳系内其他地方火山的了解。