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By NASA
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NASA Study Reveals Venus Crust Surprise
This global view of the surface of Venus is centered at 180 degrees east longitude. Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the first cycle of Magellan mapping are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create this image. Data gaps are filled with Pioneer Venus Orbiter data, or a constant mid-range value. Simulated color is used to enhance small-scale structure. The simulated hues are based on color images recorded by the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech New details about the crust on Venus include some surprises about the geology of Earth’s hotter twin, according to new NASA-funded research that describes movements of the planet’s crust.
Scientists expected the outermost layer of Venus’ crust would grow thicker and thicker over time given its apparent lack of forces that would drive the crust back into the planet’s interior. But the paper, published in Nature Communications, proposes a crust metamorphism process based on rock density and melting cycles.
Earth’s rocky crust is made up of massive plates that slowly move, forming folds and faults in a process known as plate tectonics. For example, when two plates collide, the lighter plate slides on top of the denser one, forcing it downward into the layer beneath it, the mantle. This process, known as subduction, helps control the thickness of Earth’s crust. The rocks making up the bottom plate experience changes caused by increasing temperature and pressure as it sinks deeper into the interior of the planet. Those changes are known as metamorphism, which is one cause of volcanic activity.
In contrast, Venus has a crust that is all one piece, with no evidence for subduction caused by plate tectonics like on Earth, explained Justin Filiberto, deputy chief of NASA’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and a co-author on the paper. The paper used modeling to determine that its crust is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) thick on average and at most 40 miles (65 kilometers) thick.
“That is surprisingly thin, given conditions on the planet,” said Filiberto. “It turns out that, according to our models, as the crust grows thicker, the bottom of it becomes so dense that it either breaks off and becomes part of the mantle or gets hot enough to melt.” So, while Venus has no moving plates, its crust does experience metamorphism. This finding is an important step toward understanding geological processes and evolution of the planet.
“This breaking off or melting can put water and elements back into the planet’s interior and help drive volcanic activity,” added Filiberto. “This gives us a new model for how material returns to the interior of the planet and another way to make lava and spur volcanic eruptions. It resets the playing field for how the geology, crust, and atmosphere on Venus work together.”
The next step, he added, is to gather direct data about Venus’ crust to test and refine these models. Several upcoming missions, including NASA’s DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) and VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) and, in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency), Envision, aim to study the planet’s surface and atmosphere in greater detail. These efforts could help confirm whether processes like metamorphism and recycling are actively shaping the Venusian crust today—and reveal how such activity may be tied to volcanic and atmospheric evolution.
“We don’t actually know how much volcanic activity is on Venus,” Filiberto said. “We assume there is a lot, and research says there should be, but we’d need more data to know for sure.”
Melissa Gaskill
NASA Johnson Space Center
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Last Updated May 09, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Anne McClain is pictured near one of the International Space Station’s main solar arrays during a spacewalk.NASA/Nichole Ayers In this May 1, 2025, photo taken by fellow NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Anne McClain works near one of the International Space Station’s main solar arrays during a spacewalk. During the May 1 spacewalk – McClain’s third and Ayers’ first – the astronaut pair relocated a space station communications antenna and completed the initial mounting bracket installation steps for an International Space Station Rollout Solar Array, or IROSA, that will arrive on a future SpaceX commercial resupply services mission, in addition to some get ahead tasks.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog.
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By NASA
Explore Hubble Science Hubble Space Telescope NASA’s Hubble Pinpoints… Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 7 Min Read NASA’s Hubble Pinpoints Roaming Massive Black Hole
This six-panel illustration of a tidal disruption event around a supermassive black hole shows the collision with a star followed by an explosion detected in X-ray as well as Hubble Space Telescope visible-light observations. Credits:
Artwork: NASA, ESA, STScI, Ralf Crawford (STScI) Like a scene out of a sci-fi movie, astronomers using NASA telescopes have found “Space Jaws.”
Lurking 600 million light-years away, within the inky black depths between stars, there is an invisible monster gulping down any wayward star that plummets toward it. The sneaky black hole betrayed its presence in a newly identified tidal disruption event (TDE) where a hapless star was ripped apart and swallowed in a spectacular burst of radiation. These disruption events are powerful probes of black hole physics, revealing the conditions necessary for launching jets and winds when a black hole is in the midst of consuming a star, and are seen as bright objects by telescopes.
The new TDE, called AT2024tvd, allowed astronomers to pinpoint a wandering supermassive black hole using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, with similar supporting observations from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the NRAO Very Large Array telescope that also showed that the black hole is offset from the center of the galaxy.
The paper will be published in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
This six-panel illustration of a tidal disruption event around a supermassive black hole shows the following: 1) A supermassive black hole is adrift inside a galaxy, its presence only detectable by gravitational lensing; 2) A wayward star gets swept up in the black hole’s intense gravitational pull; 3) The star is stretched or “spaghettified” by gravitational tidal effects; 4) The star’s remnants form a disk around the black hole; 5) There is a period of black hole accretion, pouring out radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to radio wavelengths; and 6) The host galaxy, seen from afar, contains a bright flash of energy that is offset from the galaxy’s nucleus, where an even more massive black hole dwells. Artwork: NASA, ESA, STScI, Ralf Crawford (STScI) Surprisingly, this one million-solar-mass black hole doesn’t reside exactly in the center of the host galaxy, where supermassive black holes are typically found, and actively gobble up surrounding material. Out of approximately 100 TDE events recorded by optical sky surveys so far, this is the first time an offset TDE has been identified. The rest are associated with the central black holes of galaxies.
In fact, at the center of the host galaxy there is a different supermassive black hole weighing 100 million times the mass of the Sun. Hubble’s optical precision shows the TDE was only 2,600 light-years from the more massive black hole at the galaxy’s center. That’s just one-tenth the distance between our Sun and the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole.
This bigger black hole spews out energy as it accretes infalling gas, and it is categorized as an active galactic nucleus. Strangely, the two supermassive black holes co-exist in the same galaxy, but are not gravitationally bound to each other as a binary pair. The smaller black hole may eventually spiral into the galaxy’s center to merge with the bigger black hole. But for now, it is too far separated to be gravitationally bound.
A TDE happens when an infalling star is stretched or “spaghettified” by a black hole’s immense gravitational tidal forces. The shredded stellar remnants are pulled into a circular orbit around the black hole. This generates shocks and outflows with high temperatures that can be seen in ultraviolet and visible light.
“AT2024tvd is the first offset TDE captured by optical sky surveys, and it opens up the entire possibility of uncovering this elusive population of wandering black holes with future sky surveys,” said lead study author Yuhan Yao of the University of California at Berkeley. “Right now, theorists haven’t given much attention to offset TDEs. “I think this discovery will motivate scientists to look for more examples of this type of event.”
This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of distant galaxy that is host to the telltale signature of a roaming supermassive black hole. Science: NASA, ESA, STScI, Yuhan Yao (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) A Flash in the Night
The star-snacking black hole gave itself away when several ground-based sky survey telescopes observed a flare as bright as a supernova. But unlike a supernova, astronomers know that this came from a black hole snacking on a star because the flare was very hot, and showed broad emission lines of hydrogen, helium, carbon, nitrogen, and silicon. The Zwicky Transient Facility at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory, with its 1.2-meter telescope that surveys the entire northern sky every two days, first observed the event.
“Tidal disruption events hold great promise for illuminating the presence of massive black holes that we would otherwise not be able to detect,” said Ryan Chornock, associate adjunct professor at UC Berkeley and a member of the ZTF team. “Theorists have predicted that a population of massive black holes located away from the centers of galaxies must exist, but now we can use TDEs to find them.”
The flare was seemingly offset from the center of a bright massive galaxy as cataloged by Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System), the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey. To better determine that it was not at the galactic center, Yao’s team used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to confirm that X-rays from the flare site were also offset.
It took the resolving power of Hubble to settle any uncertainties. Hubble’s sensitivity to ultraviolet light also allows it to pinpoint the location of the TDE, which is much bluer than the rest of the galaxy.
This is a combined Hubble Space Telescope/Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of a distant galaxy that is host to the telltale signature of a roaming supermassive black hole. Both telescopes caught a tidal disruption event (TDE) caused by the black hole eating a star. Science: NASA, ESA, STScI, Yuhan Yao (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) Origin Unknown
The black hole responsible for the TDE is prowling inside the bulge of the massive galaxy. The black hole only becomes apparent every few tens of thousands of years when it “burps” from capturing a star, and then it goes quiet again until its next meal comes along.
How did the black hole get off-center? Previous theoretical studies have shown that black holes can be ejected out of the centers of galaxies because of three-body interactions, where the lowest-mass member gets kicked out. This may be the case here, given the stealthy black hole’s close proximity to the central black hole. “If the black hole went through a triple interaction with two other black holes in the galaxy’s core, it can still remain bound to the galaxy, orbiting around the central region,“ said Yao.
An alternative explanation is that the black hole is the surviving remnant of a smaller galaxy that merged with the host galaxy more than 1 billion years ago. If that is the case, the black hole might eventually spiral in to merge with the central active black hole sometime in the very far future. So at present, astronomers don’t know if it’s coming or going.
Erica Hammerstein, another UC Berkeley postdoctoral researcher, scrutinized the Hubble images as part of the study, but did not find any evidence of a past galaxy merger. But she explained, “There is already good evidence that galaxy mergers enhance TDE rates, but the presence of a second black hole in AT2024tvd’s host galaxy means that at some point in this galaxy’s past, a merger must have happened.”
Specialized for different kinds of light, observatories like Hubble and Chandra work together to pinpoint and better understand fleeting events like these. Future telescopes that will also be optimized for capturing transient events like this one include the National Science Foundation’s Vera C. Rubin Observatory and NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. They will provide more opportunities for follow-up Hubble observations to zero in on a transient’s exact location.
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The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
ZTF is a public-private partnership, with equal support from the ZTF Partnership and from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Related Images & Videos
Six panel illustration of Black Hole TDE AT2024tvd
This is a six-panel illustration of a tidal disruption event around a supermassive back hole.
Black Hole TDE AT2024tvdu00a0
This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a distant galaxy that is host to the telltale signature of a roaming supermassive black hole.
Black Hole TDE AT2024tvd (Hubble + Chandra)
This is a combined Hubble Space Telescope/Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of a distant galaxy that is host to the telltale signature of a roaming supermassive black hole.
Black Hole TDE AT2024tvd Compass Image
This is a combined Hubble Space Telescope/Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of a distant galaxy that is host to the telltale signature of a roaming supermassive black hole.
Black Hole Tidal Disruption Event
This is a video animation of a tidal disruption event (TDE), an intense flash of radiation caused by the supermassive black hole eating a star. The video begins by zooming into a galaxy located 600 million light-years away.
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Last Updated May 08, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Contact Media Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
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