Word: kuiper
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Using his infra-red spectrometer, astronomer Gerard Kuiper reported that Mars contains...
...Kuiper thinks that his infra-red spectrometer (a wartime development) has answered some of these questions by identifying certain gases and solids on Mars. Last autumn, he found that the atmosphere of Mars contains a small amount of carbon dioxide, which is necessary to plants (the basic living organisms). Without any carbon dioxide, plants cannot live, but too much would indicate that there are no plants on Mars to consume...
Water & Greenery. Last week, Kuiper focused his spectrometer on the gleaming icecap, dwindling fast in the Martian May. It turned out to be "water in the solid state" (ice, snow or hoarfrost). If it had been solid carbon dioxide (dry ice), it would have shown an entirely different spectrum...
...Next, Kuiper examined the greenish areas. Their spectra indicated that they could not be vegetation like trees or grass. But they might be lowly lichens like those that grow on the dry rocks near McDonald Observatory. Lichens need no water in liquid form. Martian lichenlike plants might get enough water out of vapor from the icecaps, which evaporate without melting...
Canals & Superscientists? That was about as far as Dr. Kuiper went. He did not speculate about a race of lichen eaters. He took no direct photographs, and did not see the famous Martian "canals" that astronomers (and Sunday supplement readers) argue about. The canals may get their test in a couple of years when Mars swings around again, and the 200-inch telescope on Palomar Mountain is ready to take its picture...