Its a Dry Heat The Geology of Venus

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan Compiled by Robert R. Herrick and Maribeth H. Price ©Lunar and Planetary Institute, 2005

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan Introduction Venus is similar to Earth in terms of size and distance from the Sun. However, a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere on Venus makes the surface extremely hot, prevents water from existing on or below the surface, and makes surface wind velocities very low. The Magellan mission was designed to provide data on the geology of Venus by collecting radar imagery at a resolution of ~100 meters, altimetry at a horizontal resolution of ~10 kilometers, and gravity data at a horizontal resolution of a few hundred kilometers. The data revealed a planet whose diversity of geologic features rivals Earth’s, but whose overall appearance is markedly different. This slide set provides an overview of the contents of this valuable dataset. Unless otherwise noted, all images used in this slide set were produced by the authors using Magellan data. Venus Earth Distance from Sun (AU) 0. 72 1. 0 Mean radius (km) 6052 6371 Mass (1024 kg) 4. 87 5. 98 Surface temperature (K) 735 295 Surface gravity (m s-2) 8. 9 9. 8 Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank all those who contributed images to this slide set, and we thank the Magellan project for producing a high-quality dataset. Virgil L. Sharpton, Benjamin C. Bussey, and several members of the staff of the Lunar and Planetary Institute made many helpful suggestions and improvements.

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 1. Hubble Ultraviolet View of Venus

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 2. Galileo at Venus

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 3. Surface View from Venera 13

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 4. Magellan Exiting the Space Shuttle

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 5. SAR and Altimeter Operations

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 6. SAR Image Properties

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 7. Major Highland Lowland Areas

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 8. Global Topography

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 9. Global SAR Image

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 10. Global Topography/SAR Composite

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 11. Global Free-Air Anomaly/SAR Composite

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 12. Alpha Regio

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 13. Strike-Slip Fault in Ovda Regio

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 14. Ishtar Terra

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 15. Airplane View of Maxwell Montes

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 16. Venera 13 Landing Site

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 17. Highly Linear Fractures

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 18. Dune Field

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 19. Eastern Aphrodite Terra

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 20. Alta Regio SAR, Topography, and Gravity

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 21. Perspective View of Maat Mons

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 22. Mylitta Fluctus

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 23. Volcano of Intermediate Size

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 24. Pancake Domes

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 25. Mahuea Tholus

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 26. Shield Field

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 27. Lava Channel

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 28. Small-Medium Coronae

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 29. Large Coronae

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 30. States in Corona Evolution

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 31. Small-Medium Impact Craters

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 32. Large Impact Craters

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 33. Impact Crater Modification

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 34. Distribution of Impact Craters

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 35. Distribution of Large Volcanos

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 36. Distribution of Coronae

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 37. Distribution of Tesserae

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 38. Sapas Mons and Olympus Mons

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 39. Craters on Four Planets

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan 40. Rifts on Venus, Earth, and Mars

It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan The End It's a Dry Heat: The Geology of Venus from Magellan Compiled by Robert R. Herrick and Maribeth H. Price ©Lunar and Planetary Institute, 2004