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The surface of Venus is dominated by geologic features that include volcanoes, large impact craters, and aeolian erosion and sedimentation landforms. Venus has a topography reflecting its single, strong crustal plate, with a unimodal elevation distribution (over 90% of the surface lies within an elevation of -1.0 and 2.5 km) [1] that preserves geologic structures for long periods of time.
The surface of Venus is comparatively flat. When 93% of the topography was mapped by Pioneer Venus Orbiter, scientists found that the total distance from the lowest point to the highest point on the entire surface was about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi), about the same as the vertical distance between the Earth's ocean floor and the higher summits of the Himalayas.
Consequently, Venus transits only occur when an inferior conjunction takes place during some days of June or December, when the orbits of Venus and Earth cross a straight line with the Sun. [189] This results in Venus transiting above Earth in a sequence currently of 8 years, 105.5 years, 8 years and 121.5 years, forming cycles of 243 years.
It is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" due to their similar size, gravity, and bulk composition (Venus is both the closest planet to Earth and the planet closest in size to Earth). The surface of Venus is covered by a dense atmosphere and presents clear evidence of former violent volcanic activity.
A NASA spacecraft has captured never-before-seen images of Venus, providing stunning views of the hellishly hot surface of the second rock from the sun. Dark side of Venus revealed in new NASA ...
However, this is not because Venus is more volcanically active than Earth, but because its crust is older. Earth's crust is continually recycled by subduction at the boundaries of tectonic plates, and has an average age of about 100 million years, while Venus' surface is estimated to be about 500 million years old. [16]
Scientists say the finding gives an insight into what geological activity might have been like on a much younger Earth. Surface of Venus is moving like pack ice on a lake, research suggests Skip ...
Locating volcanoes on Venus became possible during the Magellan mission in 1990, which mapped over 95% of the surface of Venus. [32] The surface of Venus is hidden by clouds but surface features can be mapped using synthetic aperture radar. [33] Some images created by this mapping can give a perspective view of the elevation of the surface of ...