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.'"

Comments

Venera pictures

[troon]

See this site for the best processed pictures from the Venera missions. Absolutely fascinating stuff those Russians did then.

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

Re:We have to go deeper!

[Sockatume]

The author designed some of the instruments on Venera, in fact. I can find several articles by him in the aformentioned journal but nothing that suggests "aliens".

http://www.springerlink.com/content/0038-0946/?k=Ksanfomaliti

Re:WWCSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not so extraordinary picture

Re:WWCSD?

[hairyfeet]

Well if life developed along a similar pattern or if you believe the theory that there are certain "universal forms' like the conch that are simply the most efficient form and therefor will naturally be created then a scorpion would be a most likely early life form as one of the earliest life forms we have records on is Bronto Scorpio or the sea scorpion. The bigger question would be is if it is a scorpion what is its prey?

While I'd have to see more proof than some fuzzy pictures from 1982 as we humans are known for seeing shapes and trying to "fill in the blanks" I think its arrogant of us to believe all life had to develop the same way we did. just look at the life we've found living next to volcanic vents, that is a truly hellish place with water that would boil us alive yet there is thriving life under all that pressure and heat. of course if i were to hazard a guess I'd say Europa and Ganymede are more likely places to find life simply because there is a good chance there is liquid water and as we know water makes for a great medium for primordial soup,but who knows, maybe liquid methane or hydrogen under the right conditions could also make a primordial soup, who knows.