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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Venus' Once Molten Surface
Explanation: If you could look at Venus with radar eyes - this is what you might see. This computer reconstruction of the surface of Venus was created from data from the Magellan spacecraft . Magellan orbited Venus and used radar to map our neighboring planet's surface between 1990 and 1994. Magellan found many interesting surface features, including the large circular domes , typically 25-kilometers across, that are depicted above . Volcanism is thought to have created the domes, although the precise mechanism remains unknown. Venus ' surface is so hot and hostile that no surface probe has lasted more than a few minutes.
| Date | January 10, 1999 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: E. De Jong et al. (JPL), MIPL, Magellan Team, NASA |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |