Russian Scientist Claims Signs of Life Spotted On Venus 272
flergum writes "Leonid Ksanfomaliti, an astronomer based at the Space Research Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences, analyzed photographs taken by a Russian landing probe during 1982 and claims to have found signs of life. Ksanfomaliti says the Russian photographs depict objects resembling a 'disk,' a 'black flap' and a 'scorpion.'"
mirage (Score:4, Informative)
Well, these ought to be interesting pictures... (Score:5, Informative)
*clicks on article* ...Hmm, ok, no pictures here.
*googles it* http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2090556/Life-Venus-Russian-scientist-claims-seen-scorpion-probe-photographs.html?ito=feeds-newsxml [dailymail.co.uk].
Yea... I'm no astrocryptozoologist, but that doesn't look like life to me.
Re:Venera pictures (Score:5, Informative)
Er, sorry. Try this newer page:
http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm [mentallandscape.com]
Re:WWCSD? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, Marcello Truzzi is credited with coining that phrase:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcello_Truzzi [wikipedia.org]
Here's a Single Picture (Score:5, Informative)
No pictures were included, so how can we form our own, uneducated, opinions???
This article from Ria Novosti [en.rian.ru] has one picture with attributions to the scientist and journal. I'm not sure what you're looking at but I am guessing that the object outside of the pod is not a device of theirs -- which leads to a lot of speculation and conjecture. I guess I don't know enough about their sensors/cameras that they were using in 1982 to say whether or not this was some sort of aberration or malfunction of the camera due to extreme temperatures. But that's about the best uneducated opinion I can offer you.
Re:mirage (Score:5, Informative)
Mirage. Or easily explained by the distortion of a lens by heat in desert conditions - this one a scathing 1k F.
I doubt it. You need temperature variations in order to get this effect (hot ground, colder atmosphere) which is not going to happen on Venus, seeing as most of the heat and light is absorbed in the atmosphere before it touches the ground. You won't even get diurnal temperature variations, as the thermal capacity of the dense armosphere is quite significant, and finally, the convection will smooth out any local temperature inequalities. You simply never get the optical interface necessary for a mirage.
Re:Here's a Single Picture (Score:5, Informative)
"Greenhoue effect" (Score:2, Informative)
I wish people would stop saying "greenhouse effect" caused the heating. It's simply not true. It is the atmospheric density and proximity to the sun which makes it so hot.
Venus: 93 bar surface pressure, 96.5% CO2, 460C surface temp
Mars 0.00636 bar surface pressure, 95.3% CO2, -63C surface temp
What's responsible for the heating?
Looking for the actual pictures? (Score:5, Informative)
Look here [cosmostv.org]
Re:"Greenhoue effect" (Score:4, Informative)
Re:"Greenhoue effect" (Score:5, Informative)
The sun is responsible for the heating. The dense atmosphere is responsible for keeping the heat in. Like, y'know, a greenhouse.
Or did you think that the atmosphere was dense enough to undergo nuclear fusion and release heat, or something?
Re:mirage (Score:5, Informative)
I think you're a bit confused about typographical conventions around representation of Celsius. This is a quick and illuminating read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius#Name_and_symbol_typesetting [wikipedia.org]
Re:So... (Score:4, Informative)
The picture is published at "Is this life on Venus? Russian scientist claims to have seen 'scorpion' in probe photographs" [dailymail.co.uk]; I don't think it look like a scorpion though, more like the bio-luminous worm like thingies in the movie "Pitch Black" to me. The photos are way to grainey to get anywhere past the "if you squint your eyes and tilt your head" stage. The book "There's Somebody Else on the Moon" had way better photos.
Re:WWCSD? (Score:2, Informative)
You mean like the big quote box including volume, issue and page number of the quote from Zetetic Scholar?
Re:WWCSD? (Score:5, Informative)
Careers can be ruined by this sort of thing, ignorant journalists and skeptical armchair scientists.