SUBTERRANEAN LIFE ON EARTH - AND MARS?

by LightEye, Saturday, March 05, 2005, 14:32

Another interesting interview with Linda Moulton Howe.

http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=875&category=Science

Subterranean Life On Earth - and Mars?

"I do believe there is life inside the planet Mars, maybe 50 to 100 meters below the surface. But there is a long way to go to demonstrate that."

- Physicist Vittorio Formisano, Principal Investigator, PSF Mars Orbiter

March 4, 2005 Socorro, New Mexico - Last week at the first European Space Agency Mars Express Orbiter conference in The Netherlands, the Italian physicist Vittorio Formisano presented data about not only methane and water vapor in the Martian atmosphere, but formaldehyde. Small amounts of formaldehyde had also been reported by NASA and attributed to the oxidation and break down of methane.

But Dr. Formisano ­ who is the creator and principal investigator of the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer on the European Space Agency's Mars orbiter ­ reported at the meeting that his data is showing about 10 to 20 times more formaldehyde than methane. If his data proves to be accurate over time and other measurements, the amount of methane will also have to be revised upwards since most methane is oxidized as soon as it comes out of the ground.

Dr. Formisano told the ESA meeting of scientists; "If you consider formaldehyde as oxidized methane, then Mars is producing 2.5 million tons of methane a year." One area on Mars where his PSF instrument found the greatest concentration of methane was over the Elysium Planitia near the Martian equator ­ the same region that British scientist John Murray reported a large frozen sea - equivalent in size to Lake Michigan. [See Earthfiles 02-22-05]

Dr. Formisano said the amount of methane his PSF instrument has measured is too large to be accounted for by any known geological process. Thus, he hypothesized that some other source must be involved. In fact Dr. Formisano said publicly: "I do believe there is life inside the planet Mars, maybe 50 to 100 meters below the surface. But there is a long way to go to demonstrate that."

Since there is no instrument on Mars to measure the isotopic ratio of the methane which could distinguish between an organic or inorganic source, scientists are now looking for heavier hydrocarbons in the Martian atmosphere, such as propane which cannot come from geothermal inorganic processes.

Meanwhile, back on Earth in the caves of New Mexico and the nation of Mexico, renowned microbiologist and atmospheric chemist, Penelope Boston, is studying and cataloging a huge array of creatures that literally eat their way through cave rock and leave telltale residues of their exotic, but organic, existences. She wants to assemble a "Field Guide to Cave and Subterranean Microbes" which can be used on future field trips to Mars. I first talked with her during the ESA meeting in The Netherlands when Dr. Murray's pack ice discovery in the Elysium Planitia was first reported and Dr. Formisano said that was where he found the greatest concentration of methane.