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First 100 days of Obama administration and Life on Mars
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Methane on Mars - Credit: NASA
The first 100 days of an Obama administration is likely to witness a series of dramatic scientific announcements concerning evidence of extraterrestrial life. Such a scenario is made plausible by a paper released by NASA scientists in the January 16, 2009 online edition of Science. Titled, “Strong Release of Methane on Mars in Northern Summer 2003”, the paper discussed the biological implications of high levels of methane gas found in the Martian atmosphere.
Perched on top of the majestic snow-capped Mauna Kea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island sits an array of powerful ground based telescopes used by NASA and prestigious universities to study the universe. These include NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck telescope. Along with an infrared telescope at another geographical location, Mauna Kea’s telescopes were focused on the Martian atmosphere for the NASA study. The telescopes used infrared spectrometers to study atmospheric plumes on Mars in 2003 and 2006. One of the plumes studied in 2003 contained 19,000 metric tons of methane. By 2006, the methane had disappeared.
According to NASA scientists involved in the study, the data strongly supports the existence of biological organisms in different Martian locations where the methane gas was observed along with water vapor. One of the paper’s authors, Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said: "This raises the probability substantially that life was there or still survives at the present."
Methane Concentrations on Mars - Credit: NASA
Mumma and his co-authors do not however discount the alternative explanation that methane levels resulted from some unknown geological activity, or a combination of both geological and biological. Volcanoes are a source of methane gas. While long thought to be inactive, evidence was recently discovered that some Mars volcanoes may still be active. However, other gases associated with volcanic activities were not observed in the telescope data.
It is significant that the NASA announcement comes just before the formal inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20. There is speculation that the announcement was planned in order to protect NASA’s budget at a time when the Obama administration will be seeking to cut costs.
An alternative explanation is that the incoming Obama administration has been forewarned of startling scientific evidence of extraterrestrial life accumulated by NASA and other U.S. government agencies. President-Elect Obama appointed several individuals to key administration positions who are familiar with classified information concerning extraterrestrial life found in different government agencies and military departments. During its first 100 days, the Obama administration can be anticipated to move quickly to announce the significance of NASA’s data, and the profound policy implications of extraterrestrial life.
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