SETI bioastro: Fw: [DarlingsSpace] David Darling's Newsletter #22

From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Thu Jul 15 2004 - 09:34:36 PDT

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    From: daviddarling123<mailto:darling_at_uslink.net>
    To: DarlingsSpace_at_yahoogroups.com<mailto:DarlingsSpace_at_yahoogroups.com>
    Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 11:34 AM
    Subject: [DarlingsSpace] David Darling's Newsletter #22

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    DAVID DARLING'S NEWSLETTER

    --------------------------------------------------
    Issue #22
    July 15, 2004
    e-mail:
    daviddarling_at_daviddarling.info<mailto:daviddarling_at_daviddarling.info>
    website: http://www.daviddarling.info>
    --------------------------------------------------

     *** BREAKING NEWS ***

    Ammonia has been detected in the Martian atmosphere by the European
    Mars Express probe. Reacting to the announcement a NASA scientist
    says: "There are no known ways for ammonia to be present in the
    Martian atmosphere that do not involve life."

    We may well be on the brink of a momentous breakthrough. Recently,
    methane was found in the Martian atmosphere. This in itself was a
    powerful sign that life might be present. But the discovery of trace
    amounts of ammonia is even more significant. Ammonia can only
    survive for a few hours on Mars before it is broken down. So it must
    be being replenished continuously, hour by hour, for there to be any
    at all. Release by volcanoes and volcanic vents would be another
    possible explanation. But none of these have been detected by any
    experiment over the past 40 years. The biological interpretation is
    compelling, if not overwhelming.

    Spectral evidence of ammonia was obtained by the Planetary Fourier
    Spectrometer (PFS) on Mars Express. Professor Vittorio Formisano,
    principal investgator for the instrument, is expected to release
    details of new findings from the PFS at an international conference
    being held next week in Paris. The PFS is sensitive to radiation in
    the spectral region of 1.2 - 5 microns and 5 - 50 microns - a region
    rich with important molecules such as water and carbon dioxide.
    Ammonia has a spectral line at 10 microns.

    One possibility the scientists had to rule out was that the ammonia
    came from the air bags of the failed Beagle 2 mission. Analysis
    revealed that the ammonia's distribution was not consistent with
    this explanation.

    I'll be dealing with this extraordinary breakthrough in more detail
    in Newsletter #23, which will be going out in the next couple of
    days.

    David Darling

     

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