Tidal constraints on the interior of Venus

International audienceAs a prospective study for a future exploration of Venus, we propose to systematically investigate the signature of the internal structure in the gravity field and the rotation state of Venus, through the determination of the moment of inertia and the tidal Love number.We test various mantle compositions, core size and density as well as temperature profiles representative of different scenarios for formation and evolution of Venus. The mantle density rho and seismic vP and vS wavespeeds are computed in a consistent manner from given temperature and composition using the Perple X program. This method computes phase equilibria and uses the thermodynamics of mantle minerals developped by Stixrude and Lithgow-Bertelloni (2011).The viscoelastic deformation of the planet interior under the action of periodic tidal forces are computed following the method of Tobie et al. (2005).For a variety of interior models of Venus, the Love number, k2, and the moment of inertia factor are computed following the method described above. The objective is to determine the sensitivity of these synthetic results to the internal structure. These synthetic data are then used to infer the measurement accuracies required on the time-varying gravitational field and the rotation state (precession rate, nutation and length of day variations) to provide useful constraints on the internal structure.We show that a better determination of k2, together with an estimation of the moment of inertia, the radial displacement, and of the time lag, if possible, will refine our knowledge on the present-day interior of Venus (size of the core, mantle temperature, composition and viscosity). Inferring these quantities from a future ex- ploration mission will provide essential constraints on the formation and evolution scenarios of Venus