The video discusses the history of the Ashen Light, a faint glow observed on the nightside of Venus. This phenomenon was first noticed by two German astronomers in 1806, who initially attributed it to sunlight reflected by a Venusian moon. However, Venus does not have a moon, leading to the suggestion that the Ashen Light was caused by wildfires on Venus.
In the 19th century, the Ashen Light was attributed to various theories, including the existence of Martian canals. The American astronomer Percival Lowell suggested that the Ashen Light was a network of branching spokes, resembling the markings observed on both Mercury and Mars. However, these markings were later found to be optical illusions.
The video also discusses the history of life on other planets. In the 19th century, astronomers like Giovanni Riccioli and Athanasius Kircher observed the Ashen Light, but their observations were often dismissed as optical illusions. The Ashen Light was not definitively proven until the Soviet spacecraft Venera 9 successfully orbited Venus in 1975, detecting faint flashes of light emanating from the clouds below.
The video concludes by discussing the possibility of life on Venus and the Moon. The Moon's farside, which is invisible from Earth, has been a popular location for speculation about extraterrestrial life. However, the data from the Phobos II mission, which attempted to investigate the Martian moon Phobos, revealed that the unidentified craft and elliptical shadow were likely artifacts or overexposed transmission artifacts.
The video also discusses the possibility of interplanetary communication. Nikola Tesla claimed to have received an interplanetary message from Mars in 1899, but the data was inconclusive. The video suggests that solar activity might be linked to the Ashen Light, but more research is needed to confirm this.
Fact 1: In the spring of 1806, two German astronomers were observing Venus when they noticed an odd phenomenon. The hemisphere of Venus facing away from the Sun did not perfectly blend with the blackness of space. Instead, it had a faint glow with a greyish red or ashen grey appearance, which they referred to as the Ashen Light.
Fact 2: The Ashen Light resembled a phenomenon known as Earthshine, which is when sunlight, reflected by the Earth, faintly illuminates the nightside of the Moon. However, Venus does not have a moon, and there was nothing in proximity of Venus to reflect any sunlight.
Fact 3: In the 19th century, German astronomer Franz von Gruithuisen proposed that the Ashen Light was the result of sweeping wildfires on the surface of Venus, deliberately ignited by its inhabitants.
Fact 4: By the end of the 19th century, some two dozen observations of the Ashen Light had been recorded. Some astronomers dedicated years to the study of Venus without ever catching a glimpse of its elusive glow.
Fact 5: In 1967, a Soviet spacecraft attempted a landing on the surface of Venus. The spacecraft did not survive the descent but was designed to float in case of a water landing.
Fact 6: In the 20th century, the Ashen Light was observed by hundreds of observers. Despite this preponderance of eyewitness accounts, the lack of empirical evidence attracted a fair amount of skepticism.
Fact 7: In 1975, the Soviet spacecraft Venera 9 became the first to successfully orbit Venus. It detected faint flashes of light emanating from the clouds below.
Fact 8: In the 19th century, Scottish astronomer James Ferguson thought that Mercurians simply possessed greater resilience to heat. In 1795, William Herschel confidently announced that the inside of the Sun was home to an alien civilization.
Fact 9: In the 19th century, pioneering selenographer Johannes Hevelius produced some of the earliest detailed maps of the lunar surface. He thought that the Moon was a near-perfect copy of Earth and was inhabited by Lunarians.
Fact 10: In the 19th century, John Herschel, the son of William Herschel, claimed to have seen four successive flocks of large winged creatures on the Moon. It turned out the story had been fabricated by an American journalist named Richard Locke.
Fact 11: In the mid 19th century, the life debate about the Moon had been resurrected by a new hypothesis about the shape of the Moon. The argument was that gravitational forces had stretched the Moon into the shape of an egg.
Fact 12: In 1937, Nikola Tesla announced his plans to unveil a new technology capable of not just interplanetary but interstellar communication. He claimed to have received an interplanetary message from Mars.