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A Russian scientist claims to have spotted signs of life in the most unlikely spot in the universe: Venus, the arid, scorching second-closest planet to the sun.

Venus is widely considered to be lifeless and barren, thanks in part to superheated clouds of sulfuric acid that cover the planet. NASA’s Solar System Exploration site says the scorched world has temperatures higher than 880 degrees Fahrenheit (471 degrees Celsius) -- that's hot enough to melt lead. Indeed, probes that have landed on Venus survived only a few hours before being destroyed by the incredible temperatures, NASA notes.

Clearly life there would face incredible challenges. Yet Russian scientist Leonid Ksanfomaliti of the Space Research Institute at Russia's Academy of Sciences thinks otherwise.

"What if we forget about the current theories about the non-existence of life on Venus,” he wrote in Solar System Research magazine, according to the Times of India.

Ksanfomaliti reanalyzed nearly 30-year-old images from a Venus mission made by the Soviet landing probe Venus-13 in 1982. He claims to have discovered several photographs featuring mysterious objects that he claims resemble a disk, a black flap and even a scorpion.

“Let's boldly suggest that the objects' morphological features would allow us to say that they are living," Ksanfomaliti wrote.
Reality may be less exciting.

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