Many readers will no doubt have heard of the famous 'face' on Mars - a geographical anomaly which appears, in certain images, to resemble human features.

It has been quite comprehensively dismissed as an optical illusion, a fluke of geography or a trick of the light. Nevertheless, there is now fresh interest in the theory that the face is an artificial structure, following the publication of a photograph which purports to show an elbow on the surface of Venus.

Fantastic discovery

"This is a fantastic discovery," says Clinton Fruit, president of the snappily titled West Bromwich Society Against the Suppression of Anomalous Planetary Artefacts by NASA (WBSASAPAN).

For many years now WBSASAPAN - of which Fruit is the only member - has been campaigning for the release of vital information which he claims will prove that we are not alone in the universe.

So much they're keeping from us

"There's a great deal that NASA is not telling us," he says. "They have managed to survey the planets of our solar system in great detail, but there is so much they're keeping from us. We want to see the pictures of the knee on Saturn, or the nose on Jupiter, or even the big toe on Neptune.

"NASA deny everything, of course. I keep writing to demand that they release these images of various body parts, but all I ever get from them is bollocks.

"Still, I suppose it's a start."