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From: klaes@wrksys.dec.com (CUP/ASG, MLO5-2/G1 6A, 223-3283)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space
Subject: Possible evidence for life on Mars.
Message-ID: <8907201621.AA00301@decwrl.dec.com>
Date: 20 Jul 89 16:21:46 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 40


         From the July 20, 1989 edition of THE BOSTON GLOBE -
    
         "Meteorite Revives Hopes There May Be Life on Mars"

         The possibility that life could have evolved on Mars, and perhaps
    exists there now, has been given a boost by the discovery of large
    amounts of organic material, the basis of all known life forms, in a
    meteorite believed to have come from the red planet. 

         ...it is virtually impossible that organic compounds could have
    contaminated the rock after it reached Earth because the chemicals
    were found deep within the solid rock and because the meteorite has
    been handled with extreme care since its discovery on the sterile
    Antarctic ice.... 

         ...The meteorite was handled under extremely clean conditions. 
    It was collected in a Teflon bag, placed in a pure nitrogen
    atmosphere...it was treated like a lunar rock....

         The evidence that the meteorite came from Mars is twofold, said
    geologist William Cassidy in an interview yesterday: 

         * Tests show it was formed in volcanic processes about 1.3 billion
    years ago, which rules out origin from asteroids or comets, which have
    no volcanic activity, or the Moon, where such processes ended 4.5
    billion years ago. 

         * Samples of air trapped in glass melted into the rock during its
    formation exactly match the composition and elemental isotope ratios
    of Martian air but not of any other known planet. 

         "Bush Sets Space Agenda Today: Outpost on Moon, Man on Mars"

         President Bush today will seek to commit the United States to
    building a manned outpost on the Moon and sending astronauts to Mars,
    an administration official said yesterday.  Bush will not outline a
    specific proposal but will endorse the concept of a Moon-Mars mission,
    which was recommended by Vice President Dan Quayle and the National
    Space Council, which Quayle chairs, said the official.