Martian Water Vapor and Methane Overlap in Equatorial Regions (Formaldehyde!?)

© 2004 by Linda Moulton Howe

"A symbiosis of methanogenic bacteria with methanothrophic bacteria in the Martian underground can be an alternative interpretation (to geothermal) and looks more likely." - Vittorio Formisano, Ph.D.

[Graph of methane and water overlaps] New in-depth analysis of PFS data by European Space Agency confirms that methane is not uniform in the Martian atmosphere, but concentrated in some areas. The PFS team observed that the areas of highest concentration of methane overlap with the areas where NASA identified water vapor and underground water ice are also concentrated. This spatial correlation between water vapor and methane seems to point to a common underground source. Spectra of red-colored atmospheric CH4 methane and other gases, and W water vapor, from European Space Agency (ESA).

September 20, 2004 Ischia Island, Italy - Today at the International Mars Conference held September 19-23, by the Italian Space Agency, physicist Vittorio Formisano, Ph.D., presented results from his analysis of the Martian atmosphere in a paper entitled, "Observation of Methane, Formaldehyde and HS (hydrogen sulfide): Extant Life On Mars?" Dr. Formisano designed the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) for placement on the European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter. Back on May 6, 2004, when I interviewed him for Earthfiles and radio, he said his PFS data indicated molecules of formaldehyde in the Martian atmosphere and told me, "Formaldehyde 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, possibly life on Mars today, yes."

This was Dr. Formisano's first formal presentation about his Mars Express PFS analysis, after he failed to make an expected presentation at the July 22, 2004, Committee On Space Research (COSPAR) meeting in Paris (See: 07-22-04 Earthfiles). Speculation was in July that his formaldehyde data, combined with methane and water vapor together in significant amounts, might suggest some underground process that continues to release formaldehyde and methane on Mars.

Now, even his Ischia Island conference paper acknowledges observations of formaldehyde in its title. But he is preparing to publish his data in a scientific journal and does not want to jeopardize that publication, so he would only talk generally today about formaldehyde. "We have identified the correlation between the previous NASA-identified permafrost and the atmospheric water vapor which indicates presence of a process - mainly sublimation of ice into water vapor - which also brings methane with it. This is the main message of today."

>There are cows on Mars

...While I was much interested in Dejah Thoris' explanation of this wonderful adjunct to Martian warfare, I was more concerned by the immediate problem of their treatment of her. That they were keeping her away from me was not a matter for surprise, but that they should subject her to dangerous and arduous labor filled me with rage.

"Have they ever subjected you to cruelty and ignominy, Dejah Thoris?" I asked, feeling the hot blood of my fighting ancestors leap in my veins as I awaited her reply.

"Only in little ways, John Carter," she answered. "Nothing that can harm me outside my pride. They know that I am the daughter of ten thousand jeddaks, that I trace my ancestry straight back without a break to the builder of the first great waterway, and they, who do not even know their own mothers, are jealous of me. At heart they hate their horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for everything they have not, and for all they most crave and never can attain. Let us pity them, my chieftain, for even though we die at their hands we can afford them pity, since we are greater than they and they know it."

Had I known the significance of those words "my chieftain," as applied by a red Martian woman to a man, I should have had the surprise of my life, but I did not know at that time, nor for many months thereafter. Yes, I still had much to learn upon Barsoom.

[A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Chapter 13 - Love-Making on Mars]

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