Peculiar Planets

Going Around Mars

Rajani Shrestha February 5, 2025

The National Geographic Map of Mars. (Image Credit: National Geographic Society, MOLA Science Team, MSS, JPL, NASA.)

One of our closest neighbors in the universe, the red planet, has long intrigued geoscientists. Mars has been the destination for multiple spacecraft missions. Two rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance, are still exploring the planet as of 2025. This week, let us go on a short tour around Mars and show a little love to this fascinating planet. We will start our tour by looking at the global topograph ...[Read More]

How numerical modeling helps decipher the dynamics and evolution of Venus

Diogo Lourenço, Cédric Gillmann and edited by Nuno Rodrigues January 22, 2025

Earth’s sister, Venus, is a planet whose evolution is drastically different from our own. Unravelling the hidden mysteries behind the divergent evolution of these two planets could hold the key to understanding what makes a planet habitable. Using numerical modelling, Diogo Lourenço and Cédric Gillmann unveil the dynamics of Venus while linking them to observations. In today’s blog pos ...[Read More]

Geotandem: The Red Planet, often recognized as a dead planet, is not quite dead after all, at least geodynamically speaking

Scott King, Joshua Murphy and edited by Constanza Rodriguez Piceda February 21, 2024

Figure courtesy: Emily Hinshaw

Welcome to the first of its kind, the Geotandem 01! A collaborative series between EGU divisions. Interdisciplinarity is intrinsic to Geosciences, so we want to showcase how researchers approach the same topics from different but also complementing perspectives. In each edition, we will bring you a high-interest topic for the community seen from the eyes of diverse disciplines. Today, the Tectonic ...[Read More]

The first observational evidence for a volcanically active Venus

Anna Gülcher and edited by Iris van Zelst March 22, 2023

An artist’s impression of active volcanoes on Venus, depicting a subduction zone and an active volcano.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Peter Rubin

Our neighbouring planet Venus is gaining popularity in the terrestrial planetary sciences, especially since the selection of three new Venus missions by NASA and ESA in 2021. Now, for the first time ever, scientists have directly observed surface changes that indicate active volcanism on Venus. This discovery was made with data from NASA’s 30-year-old Magellan mission and is only a small preview f ...[Read More]