Category: venus

New Analysis Reveals Dynamic Volcanism on Venus

WASHINGTON—A fresh analysis of radar images obtained more than three decades ago has yielded new evidence indicating Venus, Earth’s planetary next-door neighbor, is currently volcanically active—a dynamic world with eruptions and lava flows. Researchers said on Wednesday radar images taken by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft showed that a volcanic vent about a mile (1.6 km) wide…


8 Celestial Bodies Line Up to Form ‘Planetary Parade’—For the Second and Final Time in 2022

You could call it a cosmic encore. It so happens last June’s planetary alignment—which included eight planets in our solar system lining up—is seeing a repeat performance this December, leading into the new year. So, if circumstances prevented you from taking in the last “planet parade,” you’ll have a few days to catch this one…


NASA Releases New Images of Surface of Venus

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has taken its first visible-light images of the surface of Venus from space. Smothered in thick clouds, Venus’s surface is usually shrouded from sight. But in two recent flybys of the planet, Parker used its Wide-Field Imager, or WISPR, to image the entire nightside in wavelengths of the visible spectrum–the type…


‘Morning Star’ Venus to Shine Its Brightest Tomorrow Morn—With Mars, Mercury, Moon, and More in February

This particular Feb. 9 tomorrow morn will coincide with the rise of the “morning star,” like a diamond in the sky, Venus—the brightest planet in our solar system whose orbit around the sun travels just inside our Earth’s. Today, Venus reached its “inferior conjunction,” aligning between Earth and the sun just before shifting over from…


‘Morning Star’ Venus to Shine Its Brightest From Thursday Morn—With Mars, Mercury, Moon, and More in February

This particular week in February coincides with the rise of the “morning star,” like a diamond in the sky, Venus—the brightest planet in our solar system whose orbit around the sun travels just inside our Earth’s. On Feb. 8, Venus reached its “inferior conjunction,” aligning between Earth and the sun just before shifting over from…


NASA Plans 2 New Missions to Venus, Its First in Decades

LOS ANGELES—NASA announced plans on Wednesday to launch a pair of missions to Venus between 2028 and 2030—its first in decades—to study the atmosphere and geologic features of Earth’s so-called sister planet and better understand why the two emerged so differently. The U.S. space agency said it was awarding about $500 million each to develop…