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No one knows why dark side of Venus has a faint glow

Ellsworth Toohey
May 08, 2026
∙ Paid

4K-Production/shutterstock.com

On January 9, 1643, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli pointed his telescope at Venus and noticed a faint glow on the planet’s unlit side. Riccioli figured it was an artifact of his glass — the same trick that makes a prism throw rainbows. Almost four centuries later, astronomers are still arguing about what …

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