Photographs show life on Venus, says Russian scientist
Remarkable claim forces Nasa to deny existence of extraterrestrial life for second time this month
BY TIM EDWARDS LAST UPDATED AT 10:27 ON TUE 24 JAN 2012
A RESPECTED Russian scientist has claimed that photographs from a space probe that landed on the surface of Venus in 1982 show evidence of several life forms. The claim forced Nasa to debunk supposed evidence of alien life for the second time in a month.
In an article due to be published in the magazine Solar System Research, Leonid Ksanfomaliti of Russia’s Academy of Sciences says the photographs indicate a number of moving objects resembling a disk, a ‘black flap’ and a scorpion. The article, picked up by RIA Novosti, suggests that between successive photographs, the objects “emerge, fluctuate and disappear”, suggesting they are moving.
If true, Ksanfomaliti’s findings suggest a veritable ecosystem on the solar system’s second planet - and fly in the face of the weight of scientific evidence, much of it gathered by Russian probes from the Venera programme.
The photographs Ksanfomaliti refers to are from Venera-13, which alighted on Venus in 1982. The probe managed to examine a soil sample and take a series of photographs before expiring just two hours after landing thanks to the planet’s hellish conditions which include a surface temperature of 460C and an atmospheric pressure 92 times that of Earth.
But Ksanfomaliti says: “What if we forget about the current theories about the non-existence of life on Venus, let’s boldly suggest that the objects’ morphological features would allow us to say that they are living.”
Ksanfomaliti’s discovery, although it has made headlines around the world, has been met with extreme scepticism.