On this day in space: Jan. 9, 1643: 'Ashen Light' discovered on Venus

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On January 9, 1643, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli saw a weird glowing light on the night side of Venus.

On January 9, 1643, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli saw a weird glowing light on the night side of Venus. He named it "The Ashen Light of Venus."

Illustration of the phenomenon of Ashen Light on the planet Venus. (Image credit: Maxentius, CC BY-SA 4.0)

At first, people wanted to attribute it to the optical quality of telescopes. Today many believe that the light is associated with lightning storms on Venus. It could also be the result of solar radiation interacting with the atmosphere similar to how auroras happen on Earth. Whatever it is, it's been a scientific mystery for centuries.

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Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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