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Venus's Surface May Be 1 Billion Years Old

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sister-planet dept.

dptalia writes, "For a while scientists have believed that Venus's surface is fairly young, having recently been covered by lava 1 to 3 kilometers deep. However, more study into photos sent back by Magellan seems to show that the cataclysmic volcano theory is wrong. Now scientists are postulating that Venus's surface may be a billion years old and could be probed to determine the history of the planet."

2 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Read the article! by drzhivago · · Score: 2, Informative

    The article says that the planet was believed to have been 500 million to 1 billion years old, but based on new data may be much older.

    The thread title is misleading!

  2. Not photos - radar images! by dtolman · · Score: 2, Informative

    Magellan did not have a sungle camera onboard - it used microwave pulses (a Synthetic Aperture Radar) to map the surface of Venus.