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SPACE: Was Venus Once a Paradise?

Venus - NASA

Venus, our solar system’s broiling, radiation-bombarded, sulfuric-acid-raining, toxic hellscape of a planet, may once have hosted vast oceans … and could have been rather nice, actually. In fact, a water-covered and life-friendly Venus possibly persisted for as long as 3 billion years, scientists recently reported. But that idyllic time in Venus’ past ended abruptly between 700 million and 750 million years ago, when a near-planet-wide release of carbon dioxide (CO2) stored in surface rocks disrupted the planet’s atmosphere and triggered its transformation to the “hellish hothouse” that we know today, researchers said in a statement. Venus and Earth could be … Read more

SPACE: So What Made the Huge Crater on the Moon’s Dark Side?

moon anomaly - NASA

Billions of years ago, something slammed into the dark side of the moon and carved out a very, very large hole. Stretching 1,550 miles (2,500 kilometers) wide and 8 miles (13 km) deep, the South Pole-Aitken basin, as the tremendous hole is known to Earthlings, is the oldest and deepest crater on the moon, and one of the largest craters in the entire solar system. For decades, researchers have suspected that the gargantuan basin was created by a head-on collision with a very large, very fast meteor. Such an impact would have ripped the moon’s crust apart and scattered chunks … Read more

SPACE: Are We Wrong About Black Holes?

black hole - pixabay

If you were to dive into a black hole (something we would not recommend), you”d likely find a singularity, or an infinitely small and dense point, at the center. Or that”s what physicists have always thought. But now a pair of scientists suggests that some black holes may not be black holes at all. Instead, they may be weird objects chock-full of dark energy — the mysterious force thought to be pushing at the bounds of the universe, causing it to expand at an ever-increasing rate. “If what we thought were black holes are actually objects without singularities, then the … Read more

SPACE: How Many Humans Could Live on the Moon?

moon base - deposit photos

It’s the year 3000. Having used up all of Earth’s natural resources, humans have become a spacefaring race and established colonies on the moon. Vast, sealed domes cluster across its surface, housing cities populated by hundreds of thousands of people. This cold, gray rock has somehow become humanity’s new home. Of course, this is pure science fiction. But no vision of the future is complete without an exterrestrial colony of humans, and since the moon is the closest celestial body to our planet, it’s the easiest to imagine as our futuristic home. But does this vision align with reality? Will … Read more

US Navy Confirms “UFO” Videos

ufos - US Navy

Three videos of unusual objects encountered by Navy pilots that were released beginning in 2017 have been confirmed to be legitimate by the U.S. Navy. Joseph Gradisher, official spokesperson for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, told The Black Vault: ““The Navy designates the objects contained in these videos as unidentified aerial phenomena. The ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ terminology is used because it provides the basic descriptor for the sightings/observations of unauthorized/unidentified aircraft/objects that have been observed entering/operating in the airspace of various military-controlled training ranges.” The Black Vault reports: “Originally released by the New York Times and … Read more

SPACE: Astronomers Find More Mysterious Dimming Stars

sun - pixabay

A mysterious star whose repeated bouts of darkening might be due to “alien megastructures,” according to some researchers’ conjectures, may now have more than a dozen counterparts that display similarly mystifying behavior, a new study finds. Further research into all of these stars might help solve the puzzle of their bewildering flickering, the study’s author said. In 2015, scientists noticed unusual fluctuations in the light from a star named KIC 8462852. This otherwise-normal F-type star, which is slightly larger and hotter than Earth’s sun, sits about 1,480 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus. When the researchers analyzed data from … Read more

SPACE: Where Do Black Holes Go?

black hole - pixabay

So there you are, about to leap into a black hole. What could possibly await should — against all odds — you somehow survive? Where would you end up and what tantalizing tales would you be able to regale if you managed to clamor your way back? The simple answer to all of these questions is, as Professor Richard Massey explains, “Who knows?” As a Royal Society research fellow at the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, Massey is fully aware that the mysteries of black holes run deep. “Falling through an event horizon is literally passing beyond the … Read more

SPACE: Black Holes are “Bald,” Not “Hairy”

black hole - pixabay

Back in 2017, a gravitational wave rang across Earth like the clear tone of a bell. It stretched and squished every person, ant and scientific instrument on the planet as it passed through our region of space. Now, researchers have gone back and studied that wave, and found hidden data in it — data that help confirm a decades-old astrophysics idea. That 2017 wave was a big deal: For the first time, astronomers had a tool that could detect and record it as it passed, known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). That first wave was the result, they … Read more

space: Landing on the Moon is HARD!

moon - pixabay

Space is hard. That was the takeaway on Sept. 7, when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost contact with its Vikram lunar lander during an attempt to touch down at the moon’s south pole. India was poised to become the fourth nation to ever successfully touch down softly on the lunar regolith, doing so in a place that no other country has previously reached. Though the space agency is still scrambling to revive communication with Vikram — which has been spotted from lunar orbit — the unhappy landing sequence seemed like a painful echo of the situation earlier this … Read more

SPACE: Did Astronomers Just Find Another Earth?

planet - pixabay

In a major first, scientists have detected water vapor and possibly even liquid water clouds that rain in the atmosphere of a strange exoplanet that lies in the habitable zone of its host star about 110 light-years from Earth. A new study focuses on K2-18 b, an exoplanet discovered in 2015, orbits a red dwarf star close enough to receive about the same amount of radiation from its star as Earth does from our sun. Previously, scientists have discovered gas giants that have water vapor in their atmospheres, but this is the least massive planet ever to have water vapor … Read more