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[music]
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Mysteries abound in our universe, but bit by bit, we are
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unlocking its secrets. We now know that our galaxy contains
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billions of other planets – but how can we learn more about
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them? What traits do these exoplanets have? What are they
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made of? What are their environments like? How have they
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evolved over time? Are they habitable? And can planets lose
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habitability over time? Imagine we could study one of these
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planets up close. We find one of similar size, mass, and
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composition as Earth. By all accounts, this planet appears
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very similar to our own. We discover evidence that this
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world may have once had liquid water oceans and volcanoes – a
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setting that could have been favorable to life. But over
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time, something drastic happened to this environment. This
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planet's sun grew brighter and hotter - increasing the
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temperature here to the point that the oceans boiled away. And
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then gradually, the volcanic gasses created a thick
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atmosphere with clouds of sulfuric acid. That once
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friendly environment was gone. But all is not lost. The
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remnants of such a world may hold the key to understanding
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planetary evolution and habitability. The twist is that
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this isn't science fiction, this planet does exist. And if we
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want to learn more about the past, present, and possible
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future of our planet and the billions of similar exoplanets
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out there – this mysterious one needs more study. And it doesn't
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reside in some distant solar system, truth be told, it sits
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right next door. This planet is Venus. And the more mysteries
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we can unravel here, the more answers we can find out there.