Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jul 24, 2004 5:29:02 GMT -6
Does Martian Methane Equal Life?
Is Physicist Vittorio Formisano's Mars Data Being Suppressed by ESA?
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"Speculation is that already methane is a rather strong indicator life is probably present today on Mars. ...Formaldehyde (also detected?) is destroyed in the Martian atmosphere within 7.5 hours. There is no way that formaldehyde can exist and remain for a long time in the Martian atmosphere. If (formaldehyde) confirmed (in addition to the confirmed methane), possibly life on Mars today, yes."
- Vittorio Formisano, Ph.D., Physicist , May 6, 2004
The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) mounted on the Mars Express spacecraft in orbit around Mars has already confirmed a surprisingly large amount of methane in the Martian atmosphere. If molecules of formaldehyde, benzene and ammonia are also confirmed, it would probably mean biological life processes are at work on Mars.
The odd thing here is that Dr. Formisano, after making this annocement, has been missing since last week. He was to make some annoucement this week on a paper he wrote, but no one knows where he is, nor are his employees aware of his whereabouts.
David Whitehouse, the science editor for the online version of the British broadcaster BBC, wrote an article headlined 'Ammonia on Mars could mean life' (distributed by internet) on Thursday, July 15, 2004. In it he described as yet unreported readings taken by an instrument aboard ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, a craft which has been orbiting the red planet since December.
"Mr. Whitehouse said the spectrometer had tentatively detected ammonia, a gas which would only survive in the thin Martian atmosphere for a few hours. He further wrote that there were only two possible sources for the ammonia - active volcanoes or microbes - and no Martian volcanoes have ever been seen".
The piece then quoted a NASA scientist saying both that 'ammonia could be the key to finding life on Mars' and 'there are no known ways for ammonia to be present in the Martian atmosphere that do not involve life.'
The BBC article further said that Vittorio Formisano, the lead scientist for the Mars Explorer instrument which supposedly found the ammonia, would present his findings at a conference in Paris this week.
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How odd.
