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A volcano on Venus was spotted erupting in decades-old images

A new look at old data reveals what scientists have long suspected about our sister planet

An image of Maat Mons on Venus based on data from spacecraft. A yellow mountain rises up on a black background with a brown area in the foreground.

Venusian volcano Maat Mons, shown in a view based on data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft and the Soviet Venera spacecraft, seems to have erupted in the 1990s while Magellan was watching.

JPL/NASA

By Lisa Grossman

Venus has active volcanism. A new analysis of decades-old images reveals the first definitive sign of a volcano erupting on the hellish planet next door.