Back in 1643, Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli was having a perfectly normal Tuesday evening of staring at Venus through his telescope when he noticed something peculiar: the planet’s dark side was giving off a mysterious glow. Being a reasonable 17th-century scientist, Riccioli did what any of us would do – he blamed his equipment. “Clearly,” he thought, “my fancy glass contraption is playing tricks on me, probably doing that rainbow thing again.”
Fast-forward nearly four centuries, and Venus is still pulling the same cosmic prank. Despite our fancy modern telescopes, space probes, and the collective brainpower of the world’s astronomers, nobody has the faintest clue why our neighboring planet insists on glowing like a celestial nightlight.
This isn’t just some “ooh, pretty space phenomenon” situation either. Venus has been consistently photobombing observations for longer than some countries have existed, yet it remains as enigmatic as that friend who always responds to your texts three days later with just “k.”
Scientists have thrown around theories ranging from atmospheric weirdness to solar wind shenanigans, but Venus keeps its secrets locked tighter than a smartphone with Face ID during a pandemic. The planet that’s already famous for being hot enough to melt lead and spinning backwards (because of course it does) apparently decided that wasn’t quite mysterious enough.
So here we are in 2024, with rovers on Mars and telescopes that can spot exoplanets light-years away, and yet Venus continues to literally glow with smug satisfaction at keeping us all thoroughly puzzled. Some mysteries, it seems, age like fine wine – or in this case, like sulfuric acid clouds in a 900-degree greenhouse.
Original story via Boing Boing