Science: The Far-Away Lichens

Are there living beings—or Some form of life—on the planet Mars? No one knows. But last week Mars paid one of its close (63,000,000 miles away) visits to earth. Its inhabitants, if any, could have taken a good look at their big, cloud-blotched neighbor. And staring down the Martians' hypothetical throats from McDonald Observatory, Texas was Dutch-born Astronomer Gerard Peter Kuiper.

Kuiper was full of scientific eagerness, because Mars rarely comes so close. Also, he had a brand-new supersensitive infrared spectrometer. With this gadget, he hoped to find out, at least, whether the climate on Mars can support the kind of life...

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