Venus a Dullsville for the Last Billion Years, Soviets Report
MOSCOW — Soviet scientists have discovered an unusual fact about the planet Venus--practically nothing has happened there in the last 1 billion years, the official Tass press agency said today.
The report said scientists studying the latest radar images transmitted by the Venus 15 and Venus 16 probes launched in 1983 showed that the planet’s surface was pockmarked with massive meteorite craters ranging in size from five to 88 miles in diameter.
Tass said the craters are “ideally preserved” with sharp contours, meaning that “over the past 1 billion years there has been practically nothing happening on Venus--otherwise volcanic and tectonic activity would have left its traces.” On Earth, no such old craters are left.
During its heyday 1 billion years ago, Tass added, “Venus apparently led a much more active life than Earth.”
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