NASA has dismissed the sensational claim by a Russian scientist that there is life on Venus, saying that the "disc" seen moving on the surface was in fact a lens cap.

Earlier this month an article published in Solar System Research magazine reported several objects resembling living beings detected on photos made by the Soviet probe that landed on Venus in 1982.

Leonid Ksanfomaliti of the Space Research Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences published research that analyzed photos made by the Venera-13 lander showing several objects resembling "a disk," "a black flap" and "a scorpion." All of them "emerge, fluctuate and disappear," the scientist said, referring to their changing location on different photos and traces on the ground.

But NASA photo analysts dismissed his claims. "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 instrument," The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday, quoting Jonathon Hill, a NASA mission planner.

Experts also said that the "scorpion" found by Ksanfomaliti is also just noise in a digital image.

No evidence of life on Venus, where the surface temperature is 464 degrees Celsius (867 degrees Fahrenheit), has ever been found.

Source: RIA Novosti