Venus is Alive

The volcanic peak Idunn Mons (at 46°S, 214.5°E) in Imdr Regio. The background image is radar data from NASA’s Magellan mission. Bright areas are either rough or have an eastward facing slope, or both. Dark areas are smooth. The radar data is draped on the Magellan topography, shown with a vertical exaggeration of 30 times. The summit stands about 2.5 km above the plains and has a diameter of ~200 km. The colored overlay shows the emissivity derived from ESA’s VIRTIS surface brightness data, taken from Venus Express. The high emissivity area (shown in red and yellow) is centered on the summit and the bright flows that originate there. Credits: 2010 California Institute of Technology; NASA/JPL