Scientists Intrigued by Weird Structures on Surface of Venus

"The surface of Venus is scoured with strange, quasi-circular features called coronae. Unlike anything seen on Earth today, they can stretch hundreds of miles in diameter, even going past the thousand mark. Or they can be as little as a few dozen miles across. In images taken from orbit, they look like chaotic scribbles etched into the rock, surrounding a partially collapsed center."

"Large or small, their origins have long been a mystery to planetary scientists. It's especially puzzling since Venus is a terrestrial world much like Earth, so much so that it's considered to be our planet's "twin," at nearly the same size and density. We're also neighbors, putting both worlds at similar distances from the Sun. So why are there coronae all over Venus, but none on Earth?"

The surface of Venus is scoured by strange, quasi-circular features called coronae that range from a few dozen to over a thousand miles across. In orbital images they appear as chaotic scribbles surrounding partially collapsed centers. The origin of coronae has long been a planetary mystery, especially given Venus's similarity in size and density to Earth. One planet is dominated by volcanoes and extreme surface temperatures while the other hosts temperate oceans. Venus's surface is a single giant crust, whereas Earth's outer shell is divided into moving tectonic plates that recycle into the mantle. Venus retains an earlier global shell state and offers a window into Earth's past and a clue to how the two planets diverged.

Read at Futurism