Publication Date:
2019-07-12
Description:
Pioneer Venus radar data on surface properties have been used to compare the Vega spacecraft landing sites with the northern 1/4 of Venus mapped by the orbiters Venera 15 and 16. The regions surrounding both landing sites possess surface reflectivity and small-scale roughness properties most similar to those of mapped volcanoes and volcanic plains regions and different surface properties than those of mapped tectonic units. Regions analogous to the Vega 1 site are relatively rare, covering 2.8 percent of the mapped surface. Vega 2 analogs are much more common and cover 22.6 percent of the surface. Neither landing site is representative of the nearby highlands of Aphrodite, but the Vega 2 landing site is similar to much of the northern plains of Venus.
Keywords:
LUNAR AND PLANETARY EXPLORATION
Type:
Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276); 13; 1415-141
Format:
text
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