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