But my vote for Venus's most peculiar feature is the presence of craters that are all relatively young and uniformly distributed over its surface. This innocuous-sounding feature implicates a single planetwide catastrophe that reset the cratering clock... turning Venus's entire surface into the American automotive dream-a totally paved planet.
Neil deGrasse TysonSo not enough people in this world, I think, carry a cosmic perspective with them. It could be life-changing.
Neil deGrasse TysonOnce upon a time, people identified the god Neptune as the source of storms at sea. Today we call these storms hurricanes.... The only people who still call hurricanes acts of God are the people who write insurance forms.
Neil deGrasse TysonBy the way, were we to find life-forms on Venus, we would probably call them Venutians, just as people from Mars would be Martians. But according to rules of Latin genitives, to be โof Venusโ ought to make you a Venereal. Unfortunately, medical doctors reached that word before astronomers did. Canโt blame them, I suppose. Venereal disease long predates astronomy, which itself stands as only the second oldest profession.
Neil deGrasse TysonPractically every food you buy in a store for consumption by humans is genetically modified food. There are no wild, seedless watermelons. Thereโs no wild cows.
Neil deGrasse Tyson