Venus has a massive lava tube

Venus has a massive lava tube Skip to content Subscribe today Every print subscription comes with full digital access Subscribe Now Menu All Topics Health Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology View All Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes View All Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment View All Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics View All Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology View All Magazine Menu All Stories Multimedia Reviews Puzzles Collections Educator Portal Century of Science Unsung characters Coronavirus Outbreak Newsletters Investors Lab About SN Explores Our Store SIGN IN Donate Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 SIGN IN Search Open search Close search Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 All Topics Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Tech Computing Artificial Intelligence Chemistry Math Science & Society All Topics Health Humans Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Recent posts in Humans Archaeology Iron Age mass grave may hold unusual victims: mostly women and children By Tom Metcalfe14 hours ago Genetics Wanderlust may be written in our DNA By Elie Dolgin16 hours ago Health & Medicine This itch-triggering protein also sends signals to stop scratching By Tina Hesman SaeyFebruary 21, 2026 Life Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Recent posts in Life Genetics Wanderlust may be written in our DNA By Elie Dolgin16 hours ago Health & Medicine This itch-triggering protein also sends signals to stop scratching By Tina Hesman SaeyFebruary 21, 2026 Paleontology A mouth built for efficiency may have helped the earliest bird fly By Jay BennettFebruary 19, 2026 Earth Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Recent posts in Earth Climate Halting irreversible changes to Antarctica depends on choices made today By Carolyn GramlingFebruary 20, 2026 Climate Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas By Michael MarshallFebruary 19, 2026 Oceans Evolution didn’t wait long after the dinosaurs died By Elie DolginFebruary 13, 2026 Physics Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Recent posts in Physics Physics Physicists dream up ‘spacetime quasicrystals’ that could underpin the universe By Emily ConoverFebruary 17, 2026 Physics A precise proton measurement helps put a core theory of physics to the test By Emily ConoverFebruary 11, 2026 Physics The only U.S. particle collider shuts down – so a new one may rise By Emily ConoverFebruary 6, 2026 Space Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Recent posts in Space Planetary Science Venus has a massive lava tube By Tom Metcalfe12 hours ago Science & Society Project Hail Mary made us wonder how to survive a trip to interstellar space By Tina Hesman SaeyFebruary 20, 2026 Astronomy This inside-out planetary system has astronomers scratching their heads By Adam MannFebruary 12, 2026 News Planetary Science Venus has a massive lava tube The cave was found through a new look at 1990s data from orbiting radar The collapsed roof of the lava tube was detected through a reanalysis of orbital radar data from NASA’s Magellan probe in the 1990s. RSLab/University of Trento By Tom Metcalfe 12 hours ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Shrouded from astronomers’ view by dense clouds, Earth’s “sister planet” Venus is slowly giving up some of its secrets. A lava tube beneath the Venusian surface — the first ever detected — could help explain how the planet formed, researchers report February 9 in Nature Communications. The detection was made by re-analyzing orbital radar data from an early 1990s NASA probe, to reveal a collapsed “skylight” in the roof of the lava tube. The discovery will influence two future probes: NASA’s VERITAS mission, due to launch before June 2031, and the European Space Agency’s EnVision mission, which is expected to launch later the same year. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. “Both spacecraft will carry advanced radar instruments capable of acquiring images of the Venus surface at significantly higher resolution than those currently available,” says Lorenzo Bruzzone, a remote sensing scientist at the University of Trento in Italy. Venus has been called Earth’s sister planet because it is relatively nearby and almost the same size. But the clouds perpetually shield it from view. NASA’s Magellan probe revealed the surface is shaped by active volcanoes, although there is little sign Venus ever had plate tectonics. The probe’s decades-old radar maps are still the best scientists have, and Bruzzone and colleagues reanalyzed the data with specialized imaging techniques to spot telltale skylights. Their search revealed a skylight near a massive shield volcano called Nyx Mons (“Mountain of Nyx” in Greek, named for an ancient night goddess.) Further analysis revealed that the collapsed skylight was about 150 meters deep and that it opened into an empty lava tube at least 375 meters deep. The “skylight” was found near a large shield volcano on Venus called Nyx Mons, amid other depressions known as “pit chains” that are thought to show where underground lava tubes have fallen in.Carrer et al. / Nature Communications 2026The “skylight” was found near a large shield volcano on Venus called Nyx Mons, amid other depressions known as “pit chains” that are thought to show where underground lava tubes have fallen in.Carrer et al. / Nature Communications 2026 But the researchers estimate the lava tube may be much wider — up to one kilometer wide, which is larger than lava tubes on Earth or Mars and equivalent to large lava tubes on Earth’s moon, where the gravity is much lower.  “This helps us better understand how the planet evolved and how its geology compares with that of other rocky bodies in the solar system,” Bruzzone says. Lava tubes on the moon might one day be shelters for astronauts against solar radiation and meteorites, and they’ve also been detected on Mars. But no human is likely to visit the Nyx Mons lava tube on Venus, where the atmospheric pressure at the surface is 93 times thicker than Earth’s, and it is so hot that regular silicon electronics won’t work. Sponsor Message Nonetheless, the discovery of the lava tube on