[meteorite-list] Strange Martian Surface Feature

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:02:25 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C8698E5A87_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi Stu,

>> Hoagland's extraordinary claims are not remotely supported by the
>> evidence at hand. That is why he is considered a "nutcase".

> Having said that, as I understand it Mr Hoagland was one of the
> first people to openly suggest that there may be primitive
> lifeforms beneath the ice on Europa, an idea which is almost
> universally accepted by exo-biologists now, so let's not
> condemn the guy *totally*.

Was this (Europa life) Hoagland's idea, or did he get it from
Sir Arthur C. Clarke? To me at least, the possibility of primitive
life forms swimming in the (likely) liquid water beneath several
hundred meters of Europaen ice is far more palatable than the
possibility of intelligent life ever having lived on Mars.
At this point, conjecture about life on Europa is perfectly
acceptable, given that there is no data to refute the possibility.
But Mars is another story -- high-resolution imagery does not
support the contention that the geological (<-- what's the
corresponding word for Mars since "geo" is specific to earth?) features
could not have been created by natural
processes.

Best,
Rob
Received on Thu 07 Mar 2002 01:38:33 AM PST