Constraining the interior structure and thermal history of Venus

Kurzfassung

Often termed the twin sister of the Earth, Venus represents an alternative outcome of the thermal evolution of an Earth-sized planet. Its extreme surface pressure and temperature, combined with the absence of plate tectonics as we know it, produced a barren, infernal world hidden under a thick atmosphere. Venus also remains the most enigmatic of terrestrial planets in terms of interior structure. Its tidal deformation, the main source of information on the core size and state, has only been estimated once at the beginning of the 1990s, and its moment of inertia is known with great uncertainty. Yet, the set of observational constants that has been acquired up to now indicates what evolutionary path might have been taken by the mysterious world and what can we later learn from the planned missions VERITAS and EnVision. In this talk, I will focus on the thermal evolution of Venus and on its present-day interior properties that can be inferred from the existing observational and theoretical constraints (such as the tidal Love number, elastic thickness, or absence of intrinsic magnetic field). The present-day interior structure depends on the specific evolution path of Venus, which can be modeled by numerical tools. I will also discuss the improvements in data expected from future missions and their potential for determining the interior temperature, core size, and core state of Venus.