Russian Scientist Says There's Life on Venus

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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Russian Scientist Says There's Life on Venus



At least, pictures of the surface of Venus have some likely candidates including, a "black disk" and a "scorpion".

Venus is relatively close in size to the Earth, but astronomers have long believed our sister planet to be covered with acidic fog clouds devoid of any life. Temperatures on the surface reach as high as 460 °C due to an intense greenhouse effect of the pressurized carbon dioxide atmosphere. There might have once been oceans on Venus, but scientists believe there hasn't been liquid water for almost 2 billion years. Despite all that evidence, Leonid Ksanfomaliti of the Space Research Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences won't rule out the possibility of life on Venus.

Ksanfomaliti bases his hope on photos taken by the Soviet probe Venus-13 all the way back in 1982. Some of these photographs reveal shapes that could be organic such as a "disk", a "black flap" and a "scorpion".

"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 wrote in an article published in the Solar System Research [http://www.maik.ru/cgi-perl/journal.pl?name=solsys&page=main] scientific journal.

I think Ksanfomaliti is definitely bold for suggesting there could be life under those acidic clouds perfectly adapted to high temperatures and poisonous atmosphere but the thought experiment is more fiction than science. I once imagined that Venus was the birth place of the human race and we barely escaped the ecological disaster there to colonize Earth, but I was ten.

Fantasies like that and Bradbury's All Summer in a Day [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Summer_in_a_Day] is about as close as we're going to get to life on Venus. Sorry, Leo.

Source: Times of India [http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-21/science/30650231_1_venus-mission-russian-scientist-landing]

(Image [http://www.flickr.com/photos/forseti/295611739/sizes/m/in/photostream/])

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Mr.Mattress

Level 2 Lumberjack
Jul 17, 2009
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As an old saying goes, Russia: "Pics or it didn't happen". However, it would be cool if they do provide evidence and it looks authentic.
 

spectrenihlus

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Feb 4, 2010
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Isn't Venus's day length longer than it's year meaning one side is basically super hot and the other super cold, therefore it would be way to cold and hot at the same time for life (even for extremophiles) to exist Or am I completely wrong on this.
 

Ciler

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Nov 16, 2009
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I guess technically there could be "life" "anywhere"... But until you have something more concrete than some dark shapes on a black & white photograph, it should probably just be considered speculative fiction.
 

Something Amyss

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Dec 3, 2008
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rollerfox88 said:
Im guessing as he claims the objects in the photos "could be described as" the various apparently organic shapes, even if he provided the photos they would be just as much use as evidence for extraterrestrial life as a photo of a floating blob in the sky.

To me, this just sounds like hes gotten over excited about a daydream he had where those shapes were alive.
I can make shadow puppets that "could be described as" a swan or a duck.
 

Ignatz_Zwakh

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Sep 3, 2010
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Acid clouds? High temperature? Poison atmosphere..? (Shudders)

The only life-form I could imagine existing on a planet like that would be a Xenomorph a la "Alien"...I.E. DON'T LAND THERE!!!!
 

spectrenihlus

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Feb 4, 2010
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Ignatz_Zwakh said:
Acid clouds? High temperature? Poison atmosphere..? (Shudders)

The only life-form I could imagine existing on a planet like that would be a Xenomorph a la "Alien"...I.E. DON'T LAND THERE!!!!
Well if anything was alive there I doubt it would be able to survive in our atmosphere so I think we will be fine.
 

Kajin

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Apr 13, 2008
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Thank you for reminding me of that incredibly sad story, Mr. Tito. I think I'm going to go cry in a corner now.
 

Sojoez

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Nov 24, 2009
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Wow seriously? This again? Wasn't the subject brought up the moment the pictures where taken, 60 years ago? The 'disk' is just the lens cap from one of the cameras.
As for the scorpion. Its a blur. Just because you can't recognize what it is, doesn't mean that it is what you make up.

Though I don't exclude the possibility of life on Venus. It could be non-carbon based life.
 

Revnak_v1legacy

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Mar 28, 2010
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Don't you need some kind of stable fluid to support life? What is he postulating this fluid is? Fucking battery acid? And the atmosphere there is crazy reactive. Whatever the fuck could survive that. it certainly shouldn't be allowed to exist within my universe. I say we nuke Venus from orbit just to make sure.
 

thiosk

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Sep 18, 2008
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Heh-- leave it to the russians to find some reason to keep going back to venus.

I don't think they've ever managed a properly successful mission to Mars, so keep building reasons to go to what you're good at!

I'm thinking "not life." It could always happen, of course, I just don't think its likely.
 

CINN4M0N

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Jan 31, 2010
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I clicked on the link from Facebook. The description said "Science!". Nice trolling me, Escapist.
 

Stabby Joe

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Jul 30, 2008
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Of there is. Did you really think we would forget about all that business back in Rome during the 50s?