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Signs of Hypothetical Fauna of Venus EPJ Web of Conferences 71, 00072 (2014) DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/20147100072 C Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014 Signs of hypothetical fauna of Venus Leonid V. Ksanfomality1 Space Research Institute, 84/32 Profsoyuznaya str., Moscow 117997 Russia Abstract. On March 1 and 5, 1982, experiments in television photography instrumented by the landers VENERA-13 and -14, yielded 37 panoramas (or their fragments) of the Venus surface at the landing site. Over the past 31 years, no similar missions have been sent to Venus. Using a modern technique the VENERA panoramas were re-examined. A new analysis of Venusian surface panoramas’ details has been made. A few relatively large objects of hypothetical fauna of Venus were found with size ranging from a decimeter to half meter and with unusual morphology. Treated once again VENERA-14 panoramic images revealed 'amisada' object about 15 cm in size possessing apparent terramorphic features. The amisada’s body stands out with its lizard-like shape against the stone plates close by. The amisada can be included into the list of the most significant findings of the hypothetical Venusian fauna. The amisada’s body show slow movements, which is another evidence of the Venusian fauna’s very slow style of activity, which appears to be associated with its energy constraints or, and that is more likely, with the properties of its internal medium. The terramorphic features of the Venusian fauna, if they are confirmed, may point out at outstandingly important and yet undiscovered general laws of the animated nature on different planets. 1 Introduction. Finds of the TV-VENERA experiments The results of a series of Soviet VENERA missions are the only existing observations of Venus' surface; they were conducted in 1975 and 1982 [1-4]. The experiments were of extreme technical complexity. Over the years, they have not been repeated by any Russian or other space agencies. Recently a new analysis of Venusian surface panoramas’ details has been made. A few samples of the planet’s hypothetical flora have been found. The lander VENERA-13 worked longer than the others (127 min instead of 30 min guaranteed.) The coordinates of the lander landing site were 7.5°S, 303.5°E, and its height above the level of radius 6051 km was 1.9 km [5]. The temperature was 735 K (462°C) and the pressure was 8.87 MPa, which corresponds to the atmospheric density 59.5 kg/m3, with the composition CO2 (96.5%) and N2 (3.5%). The local time was 10:00 am, and the solar zenith angle was of 37°. Illumination by the diffused sunlight was 3-3.5 kLux. 1 [email protected] This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Article available at http://www.epj-conferences.org or http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20147100072 EPJ Web of Conferences The lander VENERA-14 sank at the equatorial zone at 13°S, 310°E, and the landing site’s height was 1.3 km above the radius of 6051 km. The measured physical conditions were as follows: temperature 738 K, pressure of 9.47 MPa and atmospheric density approximately 65 kg/m3. Gas analyzers repeated that the atmosphere is composed almost entirely of CO2 (96,5%) and N2 (3.5%). Local time was also at approximately 10 am, with a solar zenith angle of 36°. The scene illumination reached 3.5 kLx [2, 6]. In both cases, the transmission of images began with a one-minute delay after landing to prevent any dust from obscuring the optical view. Figure 1. The Venus surface at the landing sites of VENERA-14. The VENERA panorama has been re-processed. Geometric distortions are corrected. The thematic issue of "Kosmicheskiye Issledovaniya", V. XXI, No. 2-3, 1983, presented the main results of the VENERA-13 and -14 missions. The methodology of the television experiments on the surface of Venus and the date and list of the experimental data have been discussed in detail in [1,2,4] and are not repeated here. Some remarks on the critical features of the treatment used are given below. View of the planet's surface at the landing sites of both landers are shown in Figure 1. In the first case (VENERA-13), the view was crushed soil with stone slabs, and in the case of VENERA -14, it was plates of lithified deposits of dust or traces of ancient volcanic eruptions. Physical properties of the surface at the VENERA -14 landing site (March 1982) were presented in [7]. In many sites, the planet’s surface is similar to solidified dust or lava. The daytime illumination attains 5--10 kLx and higher; blue light is absorbed by the atmosphere, and the sky tint is yellowish. The Sun disk usually is not seen through permanently presenting clouds. The cloud layers are located high in the atmosphere and are composed of micron-size droplets of concentrated sulfuric acid. The duration of both the day and the night is 58.4 Earth days. A typical Venusian landscape is a waterless almost red-hot stony or loose surface, mountains and sometimes volcanoes. The quest for hypothetical flora and fauna on Venus is based on analysis of the images of the landing site of the VENERA-13 and VENERA-14 landers. At the time of this writing, almost three years have elapsed since the submission of the first manuscript for publication that was devoted to hypothetical signs of life on the planet Venus [1]. An accumulation of new objects increased gradually (Figure 2). These objects hypothetically have characteristics of living creatures - flora or fauna. At the initial stage of the investigation, mainly panoramas of VENERA -9 and - VENERA -13 were used, in which relatively large objects were found, such as "scorpion", "mushroom", "bear" and "owl" [1, 2, 8, 9]. 00072-p.2 ICNFP 2013 Figure 2. Gallery of entities described in [1,2,7]. All names are conditional. When experience using image processing was accumulated, the VENERA-14 panorama allowed an approach to the finer details [7]. An important role was played by additional image processing, image geometric correction and the presence of up to eight duplicates of images that were obtained with good quality and low levels of noise. This arrangement enabled the selection and staking of their fragments. As a result, it managed to find and learn about a few new types of hypothetical inhabitants of the planet at the VENERA-14 landing site: "stems" and a "snake." Treated once again VENERA-14 panoramic images revealed 'amisada' object, about 15 cm in size possessing apparent terramorphic features. Figure 3. The first found "stem" is a thin vertically arranged knotty trunk that has a height of approximately 40 cm and a thickening ("burgeon") on the top and the "quatrefoil" at its base. The "stem " is located at a distance of approximately 0.4 m from the landing buffer of the VENERA-14 lander and is seen from above. Despite this paper is devoted to Venusian fauna, few words should be said about its flora. Of importance is a question about the sources of energy for the hypothetical Venusian inhabitants. The interest in the proposed autotrophic flora of the planet as a source of the existence of its fauna was noted in [3, 8-11]. It is natural to assume that, like on the Earth, the Venusian fauna is heterotrophic, and the source of its existence is hypothetical autotrophic flora (produced in unknown type of photosynthesis). Although the direct rays of the sun, as a rule, do not reach the surface of the planet, there is enough light for photosynthesis of the Earth-like type there. In the case of the Earth, a diffuse illumination of 0.5-5 kLux is sufficient for photosynthesis even in the depths of the dense forests. The measured luminance on Venus is of the same order, at the range of 0.4 to 9 kLux. Of course, photosynthesis at high temperatures and in a non-oxidizing environment should be based on a completely different, unknown biophysical mechanism. What was found are numerous vertically standing knotty black stems with heights of up to half a meter (Figure 3). Due to the availability of up to eight duplicates of the images obtained and their low level of masking noise, the VENERA panoramas permit identifying and exploring some new types of 00072-p.3 EPJ Web of Conferences hypothetical life forms of Venus. Specifically, stems are the most numerous group of samples of hypothetical flora. Still more surprising was another find. When processing the VENERA-13 images with a decreasing contrast, this allowed us to see a "flower" – an object of a regular shape (Figure 4), with a white spot (pestle?) in the center and the surrounding petals. The flower is composed of six to eight light petals. The “flower” size is approximately the same as a "quatrefoil" at the base of the stem. Figure 4. Flower – an object of the VENERA-13 panorama (with lowered contrast) that unveiled a detailed image of the "flower", its light central part and leaves at the base. The diameter of the flower and the "quatrefoil" at the base are 5-8 cm. The stems are an important complement to the objects of a hypothetical Venusian flora discussed in [8, 11]. If there are Venusian flowers, one should reflect their role. The flowers of terrestrial plants are intended for their pollination and reproduction.
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