Farewell to Martians

With whimsical and bogus tenderness, U. S. newspapers last week kissed their old favorite, the Man from Mars, goodby. Reason: Walter Sydney Adams, astute director of Mt. Wilson Observatory in California, said he had observed the Martian atmosphere for water-vapor content, found none or almost none--in any case (allowing for instrumental error) not more than 5% of the moisture in earth's air. In such dryness it seemed most unlikely that active animals could exist. In making his observations, Dr. Adams used "the most delicate spectroscope yet known."

A spectroscope splits light into patterns in which the "signatures" of various elements and compounds can be identified. Light from Mars comes through the earth's air blanket, which contains water vapor, so Dr. Adams had to separate the terrestrial vapor pattern from the Martian (if any). This he did with the help of a phenomenon called the Doppler effect: when a source of light approaches earth, its spectrum lines are shifted to the right, and when it is receding they are shifted to the left. At times when Mars is fast approaching or retreating, the Doppler effect should pull the Martian vapor lines away from the earth lines enough to make them visible in Dr. Adams' delicate instrument. But they failed to appear.

Astronomers have long known that Mars was dry, cold, almost airless. Years ago Dr. Adams found that the oxygen content of the Martian atmosphere must be less than 1 % of that in earth's air (TIME, Jan. 15, 1934). But many astronomers feel that the seasonal changes of the planet's markings must be due to some type of vegetation. For many years Dr. Percival Lowell's hypothesis, that the "canals" on Mars' surface were irrigation canals, prolonged the Man from Mars' existence. He is not wholly dead yet. Animal life may have flourished there millions of years ago when conditions were more genial. Perhaps some unimaginably sluggish survivors are still alive, adapted to an ultra-slow rate of oxygen and water metabolism.

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