The Enigmas on the Venus

COSMIC SECRETS
The Enigmas on Venus

Addams Crater
.

Courtesy of NASA/JPL

Addams crater is remarkable for the extensive outflow that extends 600 kilometers (373 miles) from the crater rim. Because of the high temperature and pressure on the Venusian surface, impacts produce more melt than on other planets. Outflow deposits are very thin. Their direction is controlled by the local topography.

Magellan radar image of Addams crater, Venus. The radar bright outflow associated with the 90 km crater stretches over 600 km to the east. (North is up.) The crater is located at 56.1S,98.9E in the Aino Planitia region. (Magellan C2-MIDR 60S093;202,framelets 21 and 29)

Dickinson Crater
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Courtesy of NASA/JPL

This is an image of the Dickinson Crater taken by Magellan.

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), University of Michigan

Lada Regio
.

Courtesy of NASA/JPL. Click Image to Enlarge

This is a very detailed image of Lada Regio

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), University of Michigan

Alternate Source NASA

This mosaic highlights a system of east-trending, radar-bright and dark lava flows that collide with and breach a north-trending ridge belt (left of center). Upon breaching the ridge belt, the lava pooled, forming a radar-bright deposit approximately 100,000 square km (right side of image). The source of the lava is the Corona Derceto, which lies about 300 km (186 mi) west of the scene. The bright and dark bars extending from top to bottom are artifacts of image processing.

http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/captions/venus/derceto.htm

Akna Mountain
.

Courtesy of NASA/JPL

This is an image of the Akna Mountain.

Courtesy of NASA/JPL

This is an image of ridges and troughs

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), University of Michigan

Venera 15
.

Venera 15 image

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), University of Michigan

Courtesy of NASA/JPL

This is a radar image of a region in a vast plain to the south of Aphrodite Terra. The large circular structure near the center is a corona, about 200 kilometers in diameter, named Aine Corona. It is one of the flat-topped volcanic constructs known as "pancake" domes for their resemblance to pancakes. NASA/JPL

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), University of Michigan

The Orange Images of Venus
Addams Crater
.

Courtesy of NASA/JPL

Many photos of Venus shown on various NASA websites always have an orange color. This orange color was added to the photos to give the impression of a hot lava world and these have been accepted as the norm by many people. But since the Magellan images were radar generated, the color had to be added after. Who picked the color is unknown, but that it was dileberately added is obvious. If you compare the different orange images on the web you will see drastic differences in the shade, like the one below.

Courtesy of NASA/JPL

This is a Magellan radar image of the Ushas Mons volcano in the southern hemisphere of Venus. It is 2 kilometers high.

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), University of Michigan

Image Courtesy of Aris Multimedia Entertainment, Inc. 1994

This is another image of a volcano on Venus

It would seem a lot of creativity goes into the coloring of Venus to show us the hot lava flows beneath the dense clouds that rain sulphuric acid...

Venus: Maat Mons and Sappas Mons
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Image Courtesy of David P. Anderson

This picture of Maat Mons and Sappas Mons on the surface of Venus was generated for the Scientific American Library Series. The image was created from altimetry and radar data returned by the NASA Magellan mission to Venus. It has a vertical exaggeration of 20:1 in order to bring out topographic detail over this large shield volcano near the Venus equator. This is one frame from an animated fly-by that explores this equatorial region of the planet. Samples of the fly-by animations can be viewed in mpeg format here and here.

The surface detail was created in the Southern Methodist University Geophysical Imaging Laboratory using a technique developed at SMU for retrieving fine-scale topographic features from radar reflectivity. The color scheme is derived from the radar patterns and basaltic composition of the rocks. The clouds are computer generated to give a sense of size and depth. The obscuring haze was rendered in order to suggest the 900 degree temperatures common on the surface of Venus.

by
David P. Anderson
Southern Methodist University

So what this shows is that the radar data can be interpreted in many ways... I like the blue skies

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