Orbital positions of the planets in systems with multiple transiting planets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. (credit: NASA Ames/Dan Fabrycky, University of California, Santa Cruz)

Astrobiology Magazine describes the findings:

The planets orbit close to their host stars and range in size from 1.5 times the radius of Earth to larger than Jupiter. Fifteen are between Earth and Neptune in size. Further observations will be required to determine which are rocky like Earth and which have thick gaseous atmospheres like Neptune. The planets orbit their host star once every six to 143 days. All are closer to their host star than Venus is to our Sun.

2011 was an exciting year with the release of Kepler data. And much more data will continue to be released in 2012. As MSNBC explains, the mission has successfully confirmed 61 planets, and has identified another 2,326 planetary candidates that have yet to be confirmed.

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Fran Drescher (credit: Manfred Werner - Tsui/Wikimedia Commons)

The actress, best known for her role as the title character on the 90s sitcom The Nanny, recently told the Huffington Post that both she and her ex-husband were abducted by extraterrestrials before they met each other. And she claims the situations in which they were each abducted are similar. She explained that her abduction occurred when she in junior high, driving down the road with her father. Her ex-husband, also in junior high at the time, was abducted while driving down the road with his father.

Drescher stated, “A few years later, we met, and we realized that we had the same experience. I think that somehow we were programmed to meet.” She even theorizes that an alien implant could be how the extraterrestrials programmed her actions. And she claims her ex-husband has one too. She explained, “We both have this scar. It’s the exact same scar on the exact same spot . . . that’s where the chip is.”

Possible life on Venus? (credit: L. Ksanfomaliti/Solar System Research)

Leonid Ksanfomaliti, professor at the Moscow-based Space Research Institute and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, recently published findings in the Solar System Research journal claiming that photos from Russia’s 1982 Venera 13 landing probe show life on Venus. According to the Telegraph, Ksanfomaliti claims that multiple objects (specifically a disc-shaped object and an object with a “scorpion shaped body”) appear in the photos, and they appear to “emerge, fluctuate and disappear.” He explains in his paper, “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.”

But according to MSNBC, “outside analysis suggests he is breathing life into an assortment of camera lens covers and image blurs.” One person who doubts Ksanfomaliti’s conclusions is Jonathon Hill, a research technician and mission planner at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University. Hill processes many of the images taken during NASA’s Mars missions, so he is familiar with examining photos from landing probes. It is his opinion that the disc-shaped, or “crablike,” object is simply a mechanical component. He supports his theory by explaining that the same object is visible in a photo taken by an identical Venus landing probe that landed nearby.

Hill postulates:

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 instruments.

According to MSNBC, it is NASA’s opinion that the “crablike” objects in the photos are “camera lens covers that popped off the Venera probes after they landed,” and the “scorpion-shaped body” is simply digital noise in the photos.

What are your thoughts about these photos? Is Leonid Ksanfomaliti, a respected Russian scientist, breathing life into inanimate objects? Or is NASA dismissing the idea of life on Venus to quickly? Share your thoughts on the Open Minds Facebook page.