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Dr Matt Blackett
Thursday 23 January 2025
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A Coventry University academic spent nearly a week studying a volcano in Spain as he hopes to help reveal what is happening more than 100 million kilometres away on Venus.
Dr Matthew Blackett has been investigating the world’s newest volcano called Tajogaite, on the Spanish island of La Palma, alongside an international team of researchers who hope their work, which began almost a year ago, can help better understand volcanoes on Venus which scientists are beginning to believe are active.
Dr Blackett says their findings may even shed light on how conditions became ripe for life here on Earth.
Imagery from Venus is very scarce – we only get snapshots but it has many similar features to volcanoes on Earth. We gathered samples from Tajogaite for analysis and prepared for future field trips on the island when drones will also be used to gather data.
We just want more evidence and hope this work and looking at volcanoes on Venus can help us explain how planets have evolved through time and, ultimately, possibly how the conditions became ripe for life on Earth.
Dr Matt Blackett, an Associate Professor in Coventry University’s School of the Environment
Dr Blackett joined around 30 other experts – led by Dr Piero D’Incecco from the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy – on La Palma as part of the Analogs for VENus’ GEologically Recent Surfaces Initiative, known as AVENGERS.
Planetary scientists have been trying to confirm whether Venus’ volcanoes have been active since 2008 when the first evidence of activity was noticed as infrared flashes appeared for three days, likely originating from the volcano Sapas Mons. If features can be observed on Earth that reflect those on its planetary neighbour, it is hoped that scientists can start to formulate theories on what is happening on Venus.
Compared to Earth’s average of 50-70 volcanic eruptions per year there has not been an observed eruption on Venus despite having an estimated 70,000 volcanoes compared to 1,500 on Earth. However, there have been signs that these volcanoes are active and have erupted within the past century. In 2023 it was discovered that there was a volcanic vent changing shape and growing.
There are five planned missions to explore Venus over the next decade – NASA VERITAS and DAVINCI, ESA EnVision, Roscosmos Venera-D and ISRO Venus Orbiter Mission - and Dr Piero D’Incecco believes these missions will help unveil the planet’s secrets and also improve understanding of terrestrial exoplanets.
The selected missions will perform a comprehensive investigation of the planet, from its interior to the atmosphere. A deeper knowledge of the geologic and atmospheric processes which led Venus to its present caustic environmental conditions will help us to better understand our planet, as well as to better characterise terrestrial exoplanets.
Dr Piero D’Incecco from the National Institute for Astrophysic in Italy
Find out more about Coventry University’s School of the Environment.