Venus, often written off as a geologically dead world, is far more active beneath its blistering surface than previously thought, according to new research.
Unlike Earth, Venus lacks the geological churn of plate tectonics that regularly recycles and sculpts its surface. For years, scientists assumed that Venus' crust would gradually build up without this process , growing thicker as new rock stacked on top. However, a different kind of planetary engine may be at work beneath this world's surface, one that prevents the crust from thickening indefinitely by causing it to break off or melt once it reaches a certain threshold.
