Grant L. Hutchison, NASA

Venus has one of the thickest atmospheres in the Solar System. Seeing the surface is hopeless using conventional telescopes. However, by using radar, we are able to get an idea of the topography of the surface. In this animation, the surface features of Venus are seen as the planet rotates on its axis. Because this is not an image, we do not have information about the color and other aspects of the surface. The false color here is correlated with elevation, black and purple being the lowest elevations and red and white being the highest elevations.

The Venusian surface

The surface of Venus is quite different from that of Earth or Mars. On Venus only about 10 percent of the surface is considered to be highlands, compared to 45 and 50 percent on Earth and Mars, respectively. Venus is mostly low-lying plains with rolling hills. In fact, 60 percent of the surface is covered by rolling hills that are flat to within plus or minus 1 kilometer (0.6 miles). Only 16 percent of the surface lies below this plain. There are two Earth-continent-sized highland regions which extend several kilometers above the mean elevation. The highest point on the planet, Maxwell Montes, is 11 kilometers high (2 kilometers above Mt. Everest) and is part of the Ishtar Terra continent. This continent is the second largest on the planet, about the size of the continental United States. Aphrodite is the largest highland region and is about the size of Africa.

Ellen Cohen