Astronomy

Scientists have studied Venus (and every other planet) for years and have made some interesting discoveries. They believe that it is exactly like Earth and yet different in its own ways.

In a news conference at the Paris headquarters of the European Space Agency, the scientists, working on the agency’s Venus Express mission, played up the Venus-as-Earth’s-twin angle in presenting their newest findings, including signs of lightning, surprising swings of temperature and additional evidence that Venus could have once had oceans the size of Earth’s. “They’re really twins which are just separated at birth,” said Dmitri Titov, the mission’s science coordinator. “The key question is why those twins are so different.”

There are many mysterious things in space that researchers have not discovered and many that they don’t understand. One of the most confusing to them is the ultra high-energy cosmic rays. At this time 370 scientists and engineers from 17 different countries have gathered together in a group known as the Pierre Auger Collaboration. They have stated that they finally have evidence explaining what these phenomenons are. They are super-massive black holes that rumble at the hearts of many galaxies, crushing stars and gas out of existence and spewing jets of radiation and subatomic particles into intergalactic space.

Astronauts working on the shuttle Discovery have undocked from the International Space Station earlier today and have begun the journey back to home. Before leaving the space station the crew left behind a new bus-sized room, spare parts and the newest member of the orbital laboratory’s Expedition 16 team - U.S. astronaut Dan Tani - who replaced fellow spaceflyer Clay Anderson after tearful goodbyes on Sunday.