Apr 18, 2012 - Therefore, the planet Venus, with its ... to half a meter in size, with an unusual morphology, ... Possible Detection of Life on the Planet Venus.
ISSN 10283358, Doklady Physics, 2012, Vol. 57, No. 9, pp. 367–372. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2012. Original Russian Text © L.V. Ksanfomality, 2012, published in Doklady Akademii Nauk, 2012, Vol. 446, No. 1, pp. 42–47.
ASTRONOMY, ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY
Possible Detection of Life on the Planet Venus L. V. Ksanfomality Presented by Academician N.S. Kardashev April 18, 2012 Received April 20, 2012
DOI: 10.1134/S1028335812090029
Observations of extrasolar planets indicate that some of them possess physical conditions close to those of Venus. Therefore, the planet Venus, with its dense and hot (735 K) oxygenfree atmosphere of CO2 , having a high pressure of 9.2 MPa at the surface, can be a natural laboratory for this kind of studies. In the absence of new landing missions to Venus, we reconsidered a part of the panoramas obtained by the Soviet Venera landers in 1975 and 1982, including images that had not been processed before. We have found a few relatively large objects, from a decimeter to half a meter in size, with an unusual morphology, which moved or changed their shape. Their emergence by chance could hardly be explained by noise. Some of these objects were observed in some images but were absent in others. This paper presents the results obtained and analyzes indications testifying to real detection of these objects. INTRODUCTION The search for “habitable zones” in extrasolar planetary systems is based on the postulate on “nor mal” physical conditions, i.e., the pressure, tempera ture, and maybe atmospheric composition similar to those on Earth. But could not such an approach be considered as a “terrestrial chauvinism”? Observa tions of extrasolar planets show that among them there should be such bodies where the physical conditions are close to those on the planet Venus. Therefore, Venus itself, with its dense and hot (735 K) oxygen free atmosphere of CO2 , having a high pressure (9.2 MPa), could be a natural laboratory for studies of this kind. The only existing data on the planet’s surface are still the results obtained by the Venera landers in the 1970s and 1980s. The TV experiments of Venera 9
Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
(October 22, 1975) and Venera 13 (March 1, 1982) delivered 35 panoramas of Venus (or their fragments) [3, 4]. There have not been any similar missions to Venus in the subsequent 37 and 30 years. In this con nection, the results of these missions are studied anew, including the panoramas that were previously regarded as noisy and unsuitable for analysis. Some of them were presented in [1]. INFORMATION ON THE EXPERIMENT The results presented below correspond to the mis sions from which images were obtained (Venera 9, 10, 13, 14), among which the lander Venera 13 worked for a much longer time than the others (127 minutes). The coordinates of its landing point were 7.5° S and 303.5° E, and the altitude of this point over the level of the radius 6050 km was 1.9 km [2]. The temperature was 735 K (462°C), the pressure 8.87 MPa, the corresponding density of the atmosphere was 59.5 kg/m3, and it con sisted of CO2 (96.5%) and N2 (3.5%). The local time was 10 o’clock in the morning with a solar zenith dis tance of 37°. The illumination (by scattered solar light) amounted to 3–3.5 klx [5]. Two mechanooptic cameras were mounted on opposite sides of the lander [4]. In this paper we con sider the results obtained from Camera 1 of the landers Venera 9 and Venera 13. The camera’s aperture was located at a height of 0.9 m over the surface, and the upper boundary of the panoramas at the center was at a distance of 2 m from the spacecraft center. The axes of the scanning cameras were placed at an angle of 50° from the vertical line, which allowed for resolving mil limeter details of the surface in the immediate vicinity of the lander and those of about 10 m near the mathe matical horizon (at a distance of 3.3 km on a level sur face). However, the tilt of the camera axis led to geo metric distortions. If one transforms the image in such a way as to correct the line of horizon, the panorama becomes a figure bounded by two arcs.
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Fig. 1. In the left panel, the arrow shows the position of a large object, “disk,” about 0.3 m in diameter (the lower part of a circular formation at the upper boundary of the image). Other panels show changes in the positions and shape of the objects “disk” (arrow a) and “chevrons” (arrow b). The approximate scanning time of the “disk” image is indicated at the panel bottom.
Venera 13 gave three full blackandwhite (BW) and colordivided panoramas (R red, G green, and B blue), covering an angle of 180°. Three series of images have been consecutively obtained, numbered 1, 2, and 6. The images from Venera 13 presented in the text are designated as, for instance, 6G (the third series, green). The B images are useless because the planetary atmosphere is opaque to blue light. The spectral inter vals were 410 to 750 nm (no filter), 490 to 610 nm (a green filter), and 590 to 720 nm (a red filter). Obtain ing a panorama in the TIFF format with its simulta neous transfer through a satellite of Venus took 13 minutes. A table with time locations of the images was presented in [1]. Each image consisted of 1000 vertical lines with a resolution of 211 pixels per line, 11 arc minutes each. With the sweep duration of 0.82 s per line, each pixel was transmitted for 3.3 ms. During the 37 and 30 years that have elapsed since the Venera missions were completed, the author repeatedly returned to the images obtained in order to reveal any unusual elements. The images published
immediately after the experiment were created by combining blackandwhite and colored panoramas. Apart from these, there are other primary images in which the author tried to reveal any distinctions in consecutive panoramas (emergence or disappearance of details or changes in their view) and to come to an understanding of the causes of such changes (e.g., the wind). Another indication of objects to be sought is connected with their morphology, distinguishing their shape from that of ordinary details of the surface. The suggested work is devoted to the results of studying the images transmitted by the landers Venera 9 and Venera 13. ANALYSIS OF IMAGES FROM VENERA13 It is necessary to stress that in processing the origi nal images, any kinds of retouching additional draw ing, or correction were completely excluded. Any application of Photoshop or other nonlinear software tools was excluded as well. The contrast and brightness of the images were corrected. If it was allowed by the DOKLADY PHYSICS
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image structure, the operation of “blurring” was applied, together with “sharpening” of the standard Microsoft Office software of the Windows system. An analysis of details of the surface images made it possible to single out a few objects satisfying the above criteria. For convenience of presentation, they are given conditional names which are absolutely condi tional. 1. The “disk” changing its shape. In what follows, the fragments of consecutive images are presented in a time sequence, originally following in 13 minutes and covering the whole lander operation period. Among relatively large vanishing or changing objects, it makes sense to begin with the “disk” (Fig. 1). The object has a symmetric shape and corresponds to the planetary surface because there were no parts of similar shape thrown off by the lander. The “disk” is cut off by the upper boundary of the image, its lower half (of about 0.3 m in diameter) is seen. The “disk” position with respect to the upper boundary changes slightly in the subsequent panora mas due to heating of the device and a small change in the position of the optical axis of the scanning camera. If one tries to select a morphological analogue of the “disk,” it may be a “large shell.” On the left, the “disk” is adjacent to a stretched structure resembling a brush. Figure 1 shows the “disk” position with respect to the lander (left) and the sequence of its images (arrow a) and surroundings. In the first two images (of 32 and 72 minutes), the appearance of the “disk” and the “brush” is almost the same, but in the image at 72 min, a short arc has appeared in the lower part of the “disk.” In the image of 86 min, the arc has become a few times longer, and the “disk” has begun to split into frag ments. In the next image (93 min), instead of the “disk,” there emerged a symmetric light object of reg ular shape and roughly the same size (arrow b), formed by numerous angular folds of chevron type. From the lower part of the “chevrons,” numerous arcs came off, each being like the single arc in the image of 86 min, and covered the whole surface adja cent to the telephotometer lid. The “disk” is not seen in the image of 93 min. Unlike the “brush,” the “chev rons” create a shadow, which indicates that it is placed above the surface. After 26 minutes, in the last image (119 min), the “disk” and the “brush” were com pletely restored while the “chevrons” and arcs had dis appeared completely. It is possible that the objects have moved beyond the upper boundary of the image. Thus, Fig. 1 includes a whole cycle of changes of the “disk” shape. The “chevrons” are probably somehow connected with both the arcs and the “disk.” 2. The “black rag.” Along side of Camera 2 of the spacecraft, there was an instrument for measuring the mechanical properties of the ground [6]. After land DOKLADY PHYSICS
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Fig. 2. The unknown object “black rag” emerged in the first 13 minutes after landing around the conical measuring hammer which partly penetrated into the soil. The subse quent images (obtained from the 27th to the 50th minute after landing) show a clean surface of the conical hammer, while the object “black rag” or its fragments are absent.
ing, a catch was released, a spring made a pendulum type truss straighten up, and a measuring cone (punch) drove into the ground (Fig. 2). The truss length was equal to 600 mm. Since the mission objec tives included an analysis of small components of the atmosphere and the ground, the presence of any organic or carbonizing materials on the instrument and on the outer parts of the spacecraft itself was excluded, as was separation of any films from the lander. These conditions were paid great attention in a factory test. After landing, the covers of TV cameras (white halfcylinders in the figures) were thrown away by means of pyrocartridges, and several other instru ments were released. In the first image of Fig. 2 (obtained in the interval of 0 to 13 minutes from the beginning of the opera tion), it can be seen that around the cone, along its whole height, there emerged a vertically stretched object of unknown origin, wrapping the cone up, a “black rag,” with a size of 60 to 80 mm. In the subse quent images, obtained at 27 minutes and later, this object had completely disappeared. From comparison with other images, one can assume that the emergence of the black object is somehow connected with ground destruction by the measuring cone. The object cannot be a fault of the panorama: in Fig. 2 it is apparent that details of the mechanism are projected on the object while other details are visible through the “rag.” One more object like the “black rag” was found on the other side of the spacecraft.
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Original image, without processing 53−66 min 2
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Fig. 3. The object “scorpion” appeared in the panorama 6BW obtained from the 87th to the 100th minutes. In images obtained before the 87th and after the 113th min, the object is absent. In the images of minutes 87–100 and 113–126 min, to the left, in the group of stones, there emerged a new object K with a changing shape. The central part of the figure, at the bottom, shows the result of the “scorpion” image processing and its size.
3. The “scorpion.” The content of the panorama 6BW, considered in [1], is very interesting. Its scanning began at the 87th minute of operation. From the results of discussions with the authors of the TV exper iment, it was concluded that little white spots in the image, with a brightness level close to saturation, cor respond to a noise of electromagnetic origin that emerged either in the heated apparatus or on the lander–orbiter line, which could be explained as a shortterm (within a few milliseconds) loss of commu nication. There was no such noise in eight previous panoramas, but now the apparatus was already dan gerously heated. The images were transmitted in a negative format therefore, the result of an incidental loss of the signal was a fault in the form of a white dot. However, upon deeper processing, it became clear that many “faults” are actually clusters of groups of dots. In other words, many small white objects turned out to be not pointlike. The dots are mainly indeed a result of electric noise. The noise density is small, and the appearance of details of the surface is easily restored by image processing. It is possible that, along with elec tromagnetic noise, there emerged some kind of pre cipitation on the surface [7]. Its nature is an unknown agent that changes its phase condition due to temper ature changes of a few degrees from 735 K (462°C) under a pressure of 8.9 MPa.
The most interesting object, conditionally called “the scorpion,” was discovered in the panorama 6BW near the 90th minute of scanning. A fragment of the panorama before processing is shown in the middle part of Fig. 3. Before that, the instrument had already been working for 1 hour and 27 minutes (moment of the start of scanning the 6BW image); therefore, our first suggestion was that this regular structure is a prod uct of destruction of some part of the spacecraft itself. But the lander Venera 13 continued to work for almost a whole hour after that, indicating that there could not be any destruction, otherwise all instruments would have failed due to catastrophic overheating. An analy sis of the technical documents showed that all external operations (such as throwing the lids away, operation of the drilling setup) terminated in less than 30 min utes. The assumption of a split detail is also in conflict with the fact that the object is absent in the subsequent images. The history of the emergence and disappearance of the “scorpion” is illustrated in Fig. 3. In images obtained before the 87th minute, the object is absent. The object is absent as well in the later image 6G (113 to 126 min). A likely cause may be in that, if the object moved, then, as it went away to a distance of 3 to 4 meters, it became indistinguishable from stones. At such a distance, as a minimum, the object should DOKLADY PHYSICS
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have moved away in 26 minutes, the time up to the next panorama 6G in Fig. 3. In the course of scanning, the image of a moving object can be distorted. The image fragment with the “scorpion” was obtained in a period of 32 seconds. The object motion could cause, for instance, its seem ing lengthening or shortening in the image. The “scorpion” has a length of 15 to 17 cm and a complicated structure resembling some terrestrial Arachnida or insects. In its immediate vicinity in the panorama 6BW, there emerged a formation like a half ring of the same size. It is a moving object of another class, which does not disappear but takes another posi tion in each image. The complex and regular shape of the “scorpion” cannot be a result of a random combination of light, halftone, and dark points. The image of the “scor pion” consists of 940 points, while the number of points in the whole panorama, covering 177°, is 2.08 × 105. The probability p of forming such an image, if we count only the number of combinations, is vanishingly small, p Ⰶ 10–100, and is in fact excluded. In addition, there is a physical indication of “scorpion” reality: an analysis reveals a shadow under the object. Shadows certainly cannot form near a random combination of points. A shadow shows that the object has a relief and is located over the surface. Most probably, the emergence and then disappear ance of the “scorpion” are connected with destruction and lateral emission of soil in the course of landing rather than a direct influence of the wind [1]. The ver tical speed of the spacecraft at landing, found by a dynamical method [8], was 7.6 m/s, while the lateral speed was approximately the same as that of the wind (0.3 to 0.5 m/s). The stroke amounted to 50g of Venus. The lander destroyed the soil to a depth of about 5 cm, threw it aside, and the soil could have covered the “scorpion.” The place where the “scorpion” appeared was studied in the whole sequence of panoramas, from the 7th to the 119th minute. At first, a shallow gutter of about 100 mm long is seen on the soil thrown out. Then the sides of the gutter are lifted, and its length grows to about 150 mm. The gutter orientation is the same as that of the “scorpion.” In an hour, the regular structure of the “scorpion” emerged from the gutter. At the 93rd minute, the “scorpion” probably com pletely got out of the soil that had covered it, whose whole layer was not thicker than 1 to 2 cm. At the 119th minute, it had already gone. Thus, the object needed about an hour and a half for the “rescue” oper ation. This apparently points to its restricted physical abilities. DOKLADY PHYSICS
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Fig. 4. The complicated symmetric shape of the object (1) “strange stone” distinguishes it against the background stony surface of the planet at the landing point of Venera 9. The object size is about 0.5 m. (2) The same object after correction for geometry.
As another cause of the object emergence and sub sequent disappearance, the possible role of the wind was also considered [1]. At the measured wind velocity of 0.48 m/s at the landing point and the atmosphere density of 60 kg/m3, the wind pressure ρv 2/2 on the “scorpion” cross section gives a pressure force of about 0.08 N, which is insufficient for its displacement. The coincidence of the scanning time of the pan orama 6BW with the emergence of the “scorpion” object was a great fortune of the experiment. Lucky was also the very position of the survey where the res olution made it possible to follow both the develop ment of the events described and the disappearance of the object in the last panorama. EXPERIMENTS PRECEDING THE MISSIONS VENERA 13 AND VENERA 14 On October 22, 1975, 7 years before Venera 13, the spacecraft Venera 9 landed on the planetary surface. Its cameras were able to transmit only blackand white images [3]. As compared with the cameras of Venera 13 and Venera 14, the resolution of 21′ in the panoramas of Venera 9 and Venera 10 was lower by almost a factor of two [3], and the sweep duration of a single panorama was 30 minutes. The panoramas of Venera 9 are prac tically noisefree. After receiving them, the research ers’ attention was at once attracted by the appearance of a “stone with a tail” [9, 10]. In the period of 2003– 2006, it became possible to substantially improve the image of the object. Afterwards, the panorama, rich in detail, was processed once again by modern means [11]. In this form the “strange stone” is shown in Fig. 4, 1 and is indicated by the oval.
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The object has a clearly pronounced longitudinal symmetry, and its shape can hardly be interpreted as that of a “stone” or a “volcanic bomb with a tail.” The locations of surface details and the straight “tail” point at a certain radial disposition, beginning from the righthand side, the “head.” The “head” itself has a complex symmetric structure with a possible upward prominence [10]. A correction of the geometry slightly elongates the object (Fig. 4, 2). The straight “tail” is 13 to 16 cm long, while the length of the whole object with the “tail” reaches 50 cm. Its height is not smaller than 25 cm. The shade under its body completely repeats the contours of all parts of the object. The following question is appropriate: if Fig. 4.2 does not show an inhabitant of Venus, then what is it? The evident complex and highly ordered morphology of the object makes a search for other explanations very problematic. The same work has also revealed other objects that may possibly be related to Venusian fauna. ENERGY SOURCES AND PROPERTIES OF THE VENUSIAN FAUNA The possible existence of life in the Venusian water less conditions was repeatedly discussed in the litera ture. The authors concluded that such an opportunity is not ruled out, e.g., in microbiological forms [12], or that there can be life that has evolved from its early stages under changing climate conditions. The tem peratures of about 735 K on the planetary surface are unacceptable for the terrestrial forms of life but are thermodynamically not worse than those on Earth in any respect. The media and the acting chemical agents are unknown, but nobody tried to find them, while the initial materials on Venus are almost the same as on Earth. Anaerobic mechanisms are well known. In many procaryotes, photosynthesis rests on a reaction where hydrogen sulfide instead of water turns out to be a donor of electrons. Many of the autotrophic pro caryotes living under the ground employ chemosyn thesis instead of photosynthesis. There is no physical prohibition of life at high temperatures. An important question is that of energy sources for life on Venus. The position changes of the objects observed allow us to assume that, due to restricted energetic abilities, the Venusian fauna moves much more slowly than the terrestrial fauna. The objects under consideration are sufficiently large; they are not microorganisms. It is natural to assume that, similarly to that of the Earth, the fauna of Venus is het erotrophic, while a source for its existence is hypo thetic autotrophic flora. Direct solar light, as a rule, does not reach the surface of the planet, but there is
sufficient light for photosynthesis. In the case of ter restrial flora, a diffused illumination of 0.5 to 7 klx is quite sufficient for photosynthesis even in the depth of dense woods. The measured illumination on Venus is of the same order, 0.4 to 9 klx. Certainly, photosynthe sis at high temperatures and in a medium without oxi dation must rest on quite different, thus far unknown biophysical mechanisms. Some evidence of the plane tary flora can probably be found in other panoramas. CONCLUSION The TV cameras of the Venera landers were designed for obtaining general views and concepts of the planetary surface. A special mission for the detec tion of life, if it ever takes place, must be much more complex. The results of TV studies of the surface of Venus, carried out in the Venera missions of 1975 and 1982, have been investigated anew. We have revealed some emerging, changing, and disappearing objects of appreciable size, whose random appearance in the images could hardly be explained by electric noise and which can be indications of the existence of life on the planet. The discovered objects have a complicated reg ular structure and probably move very slowly. It is not excluded that the emergence of the hypothetic fauna is connected with the observed meteorological phenom ena. REFERENCES 1. L. V. Ksanfomality, Astron. Vestn. 46 (1), 44 (2012). 2. A. M. Baklunov, V. P. Karyagin, V. M. Kovtunenko, et al., Kosm. Issl. 21 (2), 151 (1983). 3. A. S. Selivanov, V. P. Chemodanov, M. K. Naraeva, et al., Kosm. Issl. 14 (5), 674 (1976). 4. A. S. Selivanov, Yu. M. Gektin, M. A. Gerasimov, et al., Kosm. Issl. 21 (2), 176 (1983). 5. B. E. Moshkin, A. P. Ekonomov, V. I. Moroz, et al., Kosm. Issl. 21 (2), 236 (1983). 6. A. L. Kemurdzhian, P. N. Brodskii, V. V. Gromov, et al., Kosm. Issl. 21 (3), 323 (1983). 7. L. V. Ksanfomality, Astron. Vestn. 46 (6) (2012). 8. V. S. Avduevskii, A. G. Godnev, Yu. V. Zakharov, et al., Kosm. Issl. 21 (3), 331 (1983). 9. L. V. Ksanfomality, The Planets Discovered Anew (Nauka, Fizmatlit, Moscow, 1978) [in Russian]. 10. K. P. Florenskiy, A. T. Bazilevskiy, G. A. Burba, et al., Venus (Tucson; Arizona Univ. Press, 1983). 11. L. V. Ksanfomality, Astron. Vestn. 46 (5) (2012). 12. C. S. Cockell, Planet. Space Sci. 47, 1487 (1999).
Translated by K. Bronnikov DOKLADY PHYSICS
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