The question of whether there truly is life in space beyond planet Earth has puzzled scientists and philosophers for centuries.
And though green aliens or mutant spaceships are yet to be caught on camera in the Milky Way, a group of Russian cosmonauts this week made an equally startling discovery.
The group currently on board the International Space Station (ISS) were forced to conduct an unprecedented spacewalk in order to fix a leaking radiator on Wednesday 26 October.
The unforeseen leak was reported earlier this month by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, with the source understood to be the backup radiator that was mounted on the outside of the Nauka module launched in 2021.
Though the main radiator remains operational, Rosmocos naturally scheduled in a rescue spacewalk to fix the problem, so as to prevent future delays if the backup one is needed.
It was Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko that became responsible for fixing the leak, and during the investigation, he claimed to have seen a number of holes on the radiator panel.
“The holes have very even edges, like they’ve been drilled through,” he immediately told Moscow Mission Control.
“There are lots of them. They are spread in a chaotic manner.”
But the mysterious holes were the least of Oleg’s problems, after he encountered a strange blob of coolant while soaking up any escaping liquid from the generator.
The blob had moved onto his safety tether, with his superiors quickly instructing him to leave the area immediately and return to the ISS.
The video, that has been viewed more than 700,000 times since being posted on YouTube last year, begins by showing a simulation of the ISS in space.
The space station moves at an average speed of 17,150mi/h (27,600km/h) as it orbits the planet. This is an estimated equivalent of going at Mach 22.3.
The video shows a first-person view of what it would be like to move at Mach 22 speeds through New York City. Zipping past the large body of water to reach the city in just over a second.
“This really puts into perspective how slow sound actually is, this is crazy stuff,” one YouTuber commented.
“I think it’s crazy that we as humans made an object go that fast. I bet Newton would be pretty shocked to hear we actually went fast enough to orbit Earth like he theorized back when the fastest vehicles were sailing ships,” another remarked.
“Manhattan came and went in less than two seconds. Ha, that’s insane,” one user wrote.
Dr. Thomas Hughes is a UK-based scientist and science communicator who makes complex topics accessible to readers. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
