{"id":466790,"date":"2026-02-08T16:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T16:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/466790\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T16:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T16:58:09","slug":"scientists-intrigued-by-possible-hollow-structures-under-surface-of-venus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/466790\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Intrigued by Possible Hollow Structures Under Surface of Venus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venus has long been known as Earth\u2019s evil twin<\/a>. While they both are roughly the same size and formed in the same inner region of the solar system, Venus is far less hospitable to life as we know it. Its surface temperatures can reach over 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Its clouds are made of sulfuric acid, and its surface atmospheric pressure is almost 100 times that of Earth, the equivalent of being 3,000 underwater.<\/p>\n

And beneath all those extreme conditions, the planet could harbor cavernous structures called lava tubes, as an international team of researchers suggests in a new paper<\/a> accepted for publication in the journal Icarus.<\/p>\n

On Earth, lava tubes are the byproduct of volcanic activity that is left behind as liquid lava retreats, and are believed to exist on the Moon<\/a> and Mars<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

While they may not serve as a great place to build a shelter<\/a> for space travelers on Venus \u2014 the conditions are far too extreme for any human presence \u2014 the case that the planet may harbor them is building.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in part due to the planet\u2019s surface gravity being only around 91 percent of Earth\u2019s, allowing tubes up to 0.62 miles across to be structurally stable, the researchers found.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results suggest that lava tubes with widths of a few hundred meters may remain stable, and these dimensions are consistent with observed Venusian channel sizes,\u201d the paper reads. <\/p>\n

The researchers are now calling on \u201cfuture missions with higher-resolution imaging and geophysical investigation capacities\u201d to look for pit chains, rows of circular depressions that have been found on several planetary bodies<\/a>, skylights, or vertical openings leading to underground channels, and subsurface voids.<\/p>\n

The scientists used a common technique, called Finite Element Limit Analysis (FELA), to estimate the upper bounds of lava tube sizes that can exist on Venus\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

The findings build on previous studies that attempted to model the planet\u2019s \u201cexplosive volcanism<\/a>.\u201d It\u2019s also not the first time astronomers have found evidence for the tubes\u2019 existence. A study last year similarly concluded that lava tubes could indeed exist on the planet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarth lava tubes have smaller volumes, Mars tubes have slightly bigger volumes, and then the Moon\u2019s tubes have even bigger volumes,\u201d said University of Padova researcher Barbara De Toffoli during a meeting last year, as quoted by New Scientist<\/a>. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s Venus, completely disrupting this trend, displaying very, very big tube volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, to confirm the existence of these huge channels firsthand could prove immensely difficult. Apart from an extreme local environment, the planet is covered in a thick layer of dense clouds, making analyzing its surface from orbit a great challenge.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, NASA\u2019s Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI) mission, which is tentatively scheduled to launch in 2030, will see an orbiter and atmospheric probe explore the planet\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

An additional mission, dubbed Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy (VERITAS), was designed to scan the planet\u2019s surface with high-resolution near-infrared and radar instruments. <\/p>\n

While DAVINCI has survived<\/a> major budgets and was allocated the funds for an additional year, the fate of the VERITAS mission remains uncertain. The Trump administration\u2019s proposed NASA budget would\u2019ve killed both missions<\/a>, but a counteroffer by Congress, recently approved by the Senate<\/a>, has kept the hopes of searching for Venus\u2019 suspected lava tubes alive.<\/p>\n

More on the lava tubes: Scientists Confirm Massive Underground Tunnels on Venus<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venus has long been known as Earth\u2019s evil twin. While they both are roughly the same size and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":["post-466790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}