APOD: 2020 October 27 - Venusian Volcano Imagined

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Venusian Volcano Imagined." You may recall from a month ago that scientists published observations that microbial life may exist in the upper reaches of the atmosphere surrounding the planet Venus. Phosphine gas was detected by the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and confirmed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile. On Earth, phosphine is produced by bacteria growing in oxygen-starved environments.

Volcanoes could play an important role in a life cycle on Venus as they could push chemical foods into the cooler upper atmosphere where hungry microbes might float. We don't have the capability to see down to the surface of Venus, but we do know a thing or two about planetary geology. Pictured, the plume from an erupting volcano billows upwards, while a vast lava field covers part of the hot and cracked Venusian surface. Fun stuff to ponder when looking at the Fall Morning Star.