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Russian Scientist Claims Signs of Life Spotted On Venus

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.'"

15 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. mirage by alphatel · · Score: 3, Informative

    Or easily explained by the distortion of a lens by heat in desert conditions - this one a scathing 1k F.

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    1. Re:mirage by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · 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.

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    2. Re:mirage by chefmonkey · · 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

  2. Well, these ought to be interesting pictures... by orphiuchus · · 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.
    Yea... I'm no astrocryptozoologist, but that doesn't look like life to me.

  3. Re:Venera pictures by troon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Er, sorry. Try this newer page:

    http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm

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  4. Re:WWCSD? by sl4shd0rk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, Marcello Truzzi is credited with coining that phrase:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcello_Truzzi

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  5. Here's a Single Picture by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Informative

    No pictures were included, so how can we form our own, uneducated, opinions???

    This article from Ria Novosti 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.

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    1. Re:Here's a Single Picture by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Informative

      Scratch that, I just read some lengthy forums that say that's a shattered lens cap. Here's another panorama with said lens cap pieces. The Daily Mail offers this strange image as evidence ... but that's The Daily Mail so take it with a grain of salt. If that is what all the fuss is about, I'm a little angry I just wasted this much time. Personally I'd assume my camera is experiencing an anomaly due to it being 867 degrees Fahrenheit outside ...

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  6. "Greenhoue effect" by scorp1us · · 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?

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    1. Re:"Greenhoue effect" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Which is exactly what a greenhouse effect is, moron.

    2. Re:"Greenhoue effect" by Sockatume · · Score: 4, 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?

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  7. Looking for the actual pictures? by aglider · · Score: 4, Informative

    Look here

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  8. Re:So... by budgenator · · Score: 3, Informative

    The picture is published at "Is this life on Venus? Russian scientist claims to have seen 'scorpion' in probe photographs"; 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.

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  9. Re:WWCSD? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    a Wikipedia article (without any primary source citation)

    You mean like the big quote box including volume, issue and page number of the quote from Zetetic Scholar?

  10. Re:WWCSD? by Internetuser1248 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't forget this is a 4th hand translated account we are getting here through the notoriously sensationalist media. There was probably a 30 page report in which the scientist outlined which optical effects could most likely result in such an effect on the image through camera error or heat distortion, and then a sentence like "there is a small possibility that the objects were moving of their own volition" which then got grabbed up and made the focus of a story. If you read something stupid in the media, try blaming the media first and the scientists only when you have seen 1) the evidence and 2) the actual conclusions of the scientist in their own words.

    Careers can be ruined by this sort of thing, ignorant journalists and skeptical armchair scientists.