66 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
66 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
|
SUBJECT: MORE INFORMATION ON LIFE ON MARS FILE: UFO1746
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
=START= XMT: 18:48 Fri Oct 26 EXP: 19:00 Fri Nov 02
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
MARS EXPERTS GATHER TO DEBATE THE QUESTION, "ARE WE ALONE?"
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL (OCT. 26) REUTER - Scientists from the
|
||
|
|
United States, the Soviet Union and Europe will gather at
|
||
|
|
the weekend to explore the possibilities, or dismiss the
|
||
|
|
theories, of life on the ''angry red planet,'' Mars.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Experts are divided into three camps -- those who think Mars
|
||
|
|
never could have supported life, those who suspect some type
|
||
|
|
of microscopic bacteria do live on the planet, and those who
|
||
|
|
believe that life did exist on Mars but is now extinct.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
''We expect some fireworks because of the widely differing
|
||
|
|
opinions about the existence of life on Mars,'' said Dr Imre
|
||
|
|
Friedmann, organiser of the conference at Florida State
|
||
|
|
University. Friedmann has published research raising the
|
||
|
|
possibility that primitive Martian life forms lived and
|
||
|
|
died, similar to lichens found thriving in Antarctic rocks.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Finding an answer to the question ''Are we alone?'' is
|
||
|
|
essential before humans can set foot on Mars, scientists
|
||
|
|
say, to protect both human explorers and the Martian
|
||
|
|
environment from alien intrusions.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
President George Bush set a goal of 2019 for US astronauts
|
||
|
|
to land on Mars. The Soviets want to get cosmonauts there
|
||
|
|
nine years sooner. Both plan unmanned life-seeking
|
||
|
|
preparatory missions in the next few years.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Most knowledge about Mars has come from the US National
|
||
|
|
Aeronautics and Space Administration's two Viking probes
|
||
|
|
launched in 1975.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
From orbit, the spacecraft photographed polar ice caps and
|
||
|
|
dry lake beds and stream channels. Automated life-seeking
|
||
|
|
landers analysed the atmosphere and surface composition but
|
||
|
|
turned up only inconclusive evidence of biochemical
|
||
|
|
reactions in the soil.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
That knowledge is not enough for scientists who want to know
|
||
|
|
why Earth and Mars evolved so differently in spite of their
|
||
|
|
relatively close size and position in the solar system.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Exobiologists, specialists in the hunt for life beyond
|
||
|
|
Earth, say water -- the necessary element to sustain life --
|
||
|
|
is frozen at the poles and flowed across the red planet
|
||
|
|
three to four billion years ago.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
They say Mars had a more Earth-like climate and active
|
||
|
|
volcanoes then, too. But the planet's interior cooled
|
||
|
|
quickly and its crust stopped moving. Unlike Earth, Mars is
|
||
|
|
seismically dead and without heat to power plate tectonics,
|
||
|
|
it cannot recycle life-sustaining elements.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
=END=
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
**********************************************
|
||
|
|
* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
|
||
|
|
**********************************************
|