Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Scienziati europei credono che vi sia vita su Marte

Be', ci siamo...
Am.
European Scientists Believe in Life on Mars
Fri Feb 25,12:24 PM ET
 Science - Reuters
By Marcel Michelson 
NOORDWIJK, Netherlands (Reuters) -  European Space Agency scientists 
think that there was and could even still be life on Mars and want a new 
European mission to the red planet to take samples, a conference heard 
on Friday. 
 "Mars is the most Earth-like planet in our solar system," said Agustin 
Chicarro, ESA Mars Express Project Scientist at the end of a one-week 
conference during which scientists from around the world discussed ESA's 
Mars mission findings so far.
 They found a large ice sea near Mars' equator that was formed less than 
5 million years ago and believe volcanic activity is still continuing on 
the North Pole.
 The findings on Mars, one year after a European launch started an orbit 
around the planet, also serve as a stark warning to earthlings -- Mars 
has no protective ozone layer and the surface is blasted by solar storms 
and ultraviolet light.
 Water vapor destroyed ozone on Mars and a recent increase of water 
vapor in Earth's stratosphere could be a potential threat to this 
planet's protective ozone layer that is probably linked to global 
warming, said scientist Jean-Loup Bertaux.
 "Hints of life on Mars are getting stronger," said Vittorio Formisano 
whose team found methane and formaldehyde on Mars.
 He said there was so much methane produced on Mars that there was 
reason to believe this had an organic origin. "Life is probably the only 
source that can produce so much methane."
 Everett Gibson, from NASA (news - web sites)'s Johnson Space Center, 
said he had held a poll among the 250 scientists at the conference.
 On the question whether they thought there had been life on Mars, 75 
percent replied in the affirmative. Asked whether they believed there to 
be life now, 25 percent said "yes."
 Asked what kind of life, Gibson said "bacterial."
 ICE WATER
 Jean-Pierre Bibring led a team looking for traces of water. "We found 
water, but not in the form we envisioned."
 There is no evidence of permanent oceans or lakes during the past three 
billion years and no extended areas with carbonates, and water on Mars 
today is present as ice.
 Gerhard Neukum, of the High Resolution Stereo Camera team, showed 
several pictures of the "Frozen Sea" near the equator. The area is some 
800 by 900 kilometers and the original depth was some 50 meters with ice 
rafts of up to 30 kilometers in size.
 Mars remains a very hostile environment -- a fierce solar wind is 
blowing away planetary materials and penetrates deep down the dayside 
atmosphere while during polar night, the atmosphere is minus 130 to 
minus 143 degrees Celsius. But David Southwood, ESA Director of Science, 
said Europe should return to Mars and needs to find money for a second 
mission to probe deeper into its mysteries.

 wrote in message 
news:MhUTd.960625$35.35...@news4.tin.it...

#_Ho tagliato tutto il resto, perche`per essere angosciato mi basta; capisco 
che piu`che un'immagine di Marte gli scienziati stanno vedendo una 
fotografia della Terra come sara` fra un secolo o meno: metano e aldeide 
formica!
Beh! Ci siamo? Hanno scoperto una bottiglia di Coca~Cola?
Essi`; manca la' solo la nostra "intelligent intervention" & "design" per 
ricominciare da capo il ciclo dei casini del nostro pianeta !?
Ciao
Giano