From Scientific America:
"Massive Ocean Eddies Stir Up Life around Deep-Sea Vents
New research suggests that surface-generated eddies help distribute heat, chemistry and life at deep-ocean hydrothermal vents.
... Hydrothermal vents occur at oceanic ridges where brand-new seafloor emerges from the ductile depths of the mantle. Temperatures at these vents can top 400 degrees Celsius and thick plumes of iron and sulfur cloud the permanently pitch-black waters. But life teems even where the sun doesn't shine."
Sounds like something you’d read in the Weekly World News or the new Pravda...
Bet their really hot!
Errr... Bet they’re really hot!
The photographs feature several objects, which Ksanfomaliti said, resembled a "disk", a "black flap" and a "scorpion".Black-flap disk scorpions are a positive menace out here in desert country where it rains sulphuric acid and gets up to 900 degrees F. during the heat of the day. Nasty critters. Tasty though if you deep-fry them in a buttery beer batter.
They forgot to mention the giant pyramids with Elvis’ face carved on them.
I think the deep-sea life you refer to is *around* the vents and not *in* them. The surrounding water is barely above freezing, and heat rises. Also, Venus is about twice as hot as inside the vent. And there’s no freezing water nearby if you get too close to the heat, like there is around the vents.
The venusians are playing Frisbee!
Lead is molten on Venus, and the air pressure is insane, so I doubt any life could lives in such an enviornment.
http://230nsc1.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Solar/venusenv.html
“The Atmosphere of Venus
The atmosphere of Venus is mostly carbon dioxide, 96.5% by volume. Most of the remaining 3.5% is nitrogen. Early evidence pointed to the sulfuric acid content in the atmosphere, but we now know that that is a rather minor constituent of the atmosphere.
The mass of the Venus atmosphere is about 90 times that of the Earth’s atmosphere. 90% of the Earth’s atmosphere is within 10 km of the surface, whereas you have to go to 50 km to capture 90% of the atmosphere of Venus. The clouds of Venus may extend from about 50 to 70 km and may be divided into three distinct layers. Below the clouds is a layer of haze down to about 30 km and below that it is clear.
Above the clouds there is a high-speed “jet stream” which blows from west to east at about 300-400 km/h. This wind is fastest at the equator and slows toward the poles, often giving a “V” type pattern in the visible cloud cover. At the surface there is almost no prevailing wind, with measured surface wind speeds typically less than 2 m/s.
High Temperature and Pressure on Venus
The temperature and pressure on the surface of Venus are so extreme that none of the armored Russian spacecraft of the Venera series lasted more than an hour on the surface. Within that short period, they and the multiprobe of the Magellan mission have provided us with all the direct data we have about the harsh Venusian surface. The pressure at the surface is about 90 Earth atmospheres! This is a pressure of about 900 Newtons per square centimeter or about 1300 pounds per square inch.
The surface temperature of about 750 K or about 480°C or nearly 900°F is hot enough to melt lead, hotter than any household oven temperature. This temperature destroyed the well-insulated and highly protected Russian electronics of the Venera surface craft within an hour.”
In other words, it’s difficult to keep ones skirt from blowing up and difficult to keep one’s spaceship from melting down.
Uhhuh, Tholians.
Wasn’t this shown to be part of the equipment that was malfunctioning?
Russian tabloids are always running this type of crazy crap.
Lots of possibilities. While the surface of Venus is about 90 atmospheres, it is the equivalent of about 1300m underwater, where lots of complex sea life dwells.
Temperature and noxious gases are another problem. While there might be animals evolved to handle these for a short time, they would need to quickly return underground where it could be substantially cooler.
The best possibility is that there is a large body of liquid underground that when hot, sinks, and when cool, rises, thus creating a cooling current between deep underground and the surface.
Russian scientists are no strangers to sensational claims...