Life on Venus? No, say space experts - the 'creature' scuttling on the surface is a lens cap that fell off Russian space probe
- Scientist sees shapes in 1982 Soviet probe pictures
- Image analysts say the pictures show a lens cap and 'noise' in a digital photo
- Nasa experts say it's more likely to be a lens cap that fell off, not a creature that the probes landed right next to
- No previous records of life on the hottest planet in solar system
Russian space expert Leonid Ksanfomaliti claimed to have discovered life on Venus after analysing photographs taken by a Soviet probe that landed on the planet's surface 30 years ago.
Nasa photo analysts have been quick to debunk his claims, based on photos taken by the Russian probe Venus-13 in 1982.
The 'disc' that is seen 'moving' on the surface is in fact a lens cap, and the 'scorpion' seen by Ksanfomaliti is in fact 'noise' in a seocnd-hand picture which is not present in the original image.
Images of the surface of Venus taken by the Soviet Venera-13 descent module in 1982: Russian scientist Leonid Ksanfomality claimed to have seen a 'disc' moving, but image analysts point out that it's more likely to be a lens cap
Venera 13 and 14 were identical Russian space probes built to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity. They launched 5 days apart
Ksanfomaliti said the images showed a scorpion-shaped body, a disc and a 'black flap,' which apparently moved as the probe's camera records the scene.
In comments reported by a Russian news agency, he said, 'They all 'emerge, fluctuate and disappear,' explained Ksanfomaliti, writing in the Russian journal Solar System Research magazine.
'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,' he added.
Ted Stryk, a Nasa photo analysts says that it's more likely that the 'disc' in particular came from the craft.
'Venera-13 had two cameras, one in front and one in back. The one image shows the front camera lens cap and the other shows the rear camera lens cap, not one lens cap that moved,' he says, in comments on Life's Little Mysteries.
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New life? Russian scientist Leonid Ksanfomaliti, claims this image, taken from a probe that landed on Venus in 1982, shows a scorpion-shaped life form
The probe is bottom of the picture and left, with debris in the middle; Ksanfomaliti said that he had spotted several objects which seemed to 'move' as if alive, including a disc - but space experts say that the 'new life' is probably a lens cap
VENUS - A HAVEN FOR LIFE?
Venus is the most similar planet in our solar system in terms of size and structure to Earth. Its diameter is 7521 miles – very close to Earth’s 7926-mile diameter.
But the surface is very different - it’s the hottest planet in the solar system, thanks to its atmosphere being 97 per cent carbon dioxide – a heat-trapping greenhouse gas.
It is 67.2million miles from the sun.
Its constant surface temperature is 480C - hot enough to melt lead, and hotter than Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.
The atmospheric pressure is 96 times higher than Earth’s.Uniquely in the solar system, it rotates ‘backwards’, with the Sun rising in the west and setting in the east.
Experts believe this was caused by an impact with a huge object in the distant past.
Jonathon Hill, a Nasa mission planner, echoes his comments, 'If those objects were already on the surface of Venus, what are the chances that Venera 13 and 14, which landed nearly 1,000 kilometers apart, would both land inches away from the only ones in sight and they would be in the same positions relative to the spacecraft?
'It makes much more sense that it's a piece of the lander designed to break off during the deployment of one of the scientific instrument.'
The scorpion 'found' by Ksanfomaliti is also just 'noise' in a digital image, say experts - and it's not in the original image.
The Russian scientist is the author of several space publications including the book Mercury.
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There are no records of life on Venus, which has a surface temperature of 464 degrees Celsius.
'Similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus' thick, toxic atmosphere traps heat in a runaway "greenhouse effect,' says Nasa.
Scientists have not ruled out the possibility of life having once existed on Venus - but most research has focused on whether there were oceans, and possibly life, in the distant past, before the 'greenhouse effect' created the scorching temperatures that exist on the surface today.
'Current theories suggest that Venus and the Earth may have started out alike. There might have been a lot of water on Venus and there might have been a lot of carbon dioxide on Earth,' Professor Andrew Ingersoll of Caltech said in a paper published in Astrobiology in 2004.
Venus, as mapped by Nasa's Magellan probe: The probe used radar to map the planet's surface before plunging into Venus's hellishly hot atmosphere
Leonid Ksanfomaliti pictured at Russia's Space Research Institute
Since the Russian probe visited the planet, Nasa probes have created much more detailed pictures of the surface - in which no living beings appear.
Nasa's Magellan spacecraft, named after the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer whose expedition first circumnavigated the Earth, was launched May 4, 1989, and arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990.
During the first eight-month mapping cycle around Venus, Magellan collected radar images of 84 percent of the planet's surface, with resolution 10 times better than that of the earlier Soviet Venera missions.
'During the extended mission, two further mapping cycles from May 15, 1991 to September 14, 1992 brought mapping coverage to 98% of the planet, with a resolution of approximately 100m,' says Nasa.
This composite picture of Venus was created from Nasa's radar investigations including Magellan's 1990-1994 mission. The planet's surface is hot enough to melt lead, heated by a runaway 'greenhouse effect'
Comic book hero Dan Dare battled against the Mekon, ruler of Venus in British comic The Eagle
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