269-8 Airburst-Origin Hypothesis for Maculae on Venus: A Comparative Morphological Study

Session: Planetary Geologic Mapping Across the Solar System (Posters)

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It is well known that there are relatively few impact craters on Venus. However, multiple circular, radar-dark features have been identified in the Magellan synthetic aperture radar (SAR) FMAP global mosaics. These “maculae” have been hypothesized to represent meteor airburst scars [e.g. Zahnle, 1992; Wood, 2000; Antropova et al, 2023]. It is predicted that airbursts are very frequent due to Venus’s thick atmosphere [Zahnle, 1992]. A model to predict the relative size and diameters of airburst impactors has been performed, utilizing the altitude, energy conditions, and erosional conditions of 518 airbursts [Wood, 2000]. A study of linear arrangements of maculae [Antropova et al., 2023], utilized their diameters, morphometry, and stratigraphic relationship to determine if they represent airburst chains.

A deeper understanding of the relationship between impact craters and maculae putatively created by airbursts can be determined by analyzing the features in the V-18 Lachesis Tessera and V-19 Sedna Planitia quadrangles on Venus. We have measured the diameters and calculated the surface area of maculae in V-18 & V-19, then compared them to the model of Wood [2000], to determine if they are consistent with the predicted size and diameters of meteorite airbursts. Following Antropova et al. [2023], we then compared the maculae surface area to the surface area of the ejecta fields of known impact craters. The correlation between the relative surface areas potentially supports the hypothesis that the Venus maculae represent meteor airbursts.

This research was funded by the VERITAS SOAR internship program, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.

Zahnle, K., 1992, Airburst origin of dark spots on Venus: Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, v. 97, p. 10,243–10,256, https://doi.org/10.1029/92JE00764.

Wood, D.A., 2000, High-altitude airbursts on Venus and their geologic effects: M.S. thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson, 75 p., https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/106846.

Antropova, E., Braga, R., Ernst, R.E., El Bilali, H., Samsonov, A., and Yuriev, A., 2023, Characterization of a 2700 km long bolide airburst chain, Phoebe Regio, Venus: Planetary and Space Science, v. 229, 105763, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2023.105763.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-9272

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