Jun 15 1981
From The Space Library
NASA said that investigators at GSFC and the University of Maryland had discovered a natural infrared laser on Mars, a find that could help detect new planets in the universe and require rewrites of books on general physics of the planetary atmosphere. Members of the team were Dr. Michael J. Mumma, Dr. David Buhl, Dr. Gordon Chin, Dr. Drake Deming, Fred Espenak, and Dr. Theodore Kostiuk, all of GSFC, and Dr. David Zipoy of the University of Maryland. The discovery was reported in Science magazine.
Optical lasers since their 50-year-ago invention had proved extremely useful not only in scientific laboratories but also in everyday life; for example, as price scanners in supermarkets. However, the investigators said, no naturally occurring laser had ever been reported, although "the extreme variety of physical and chemical environments of extraterrestrial objects... argue[d]that natural lasers must exist." In theory, "natural" lasers would occur whenever atoms or molecules were stimulated to release photons in transition from higher to lower energy states. A Goddard-developed device (an infrared heterodyne spectrometer) used with the McMath solar telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona had detected such a process in the Mars atmosphere (made up almost entirely of Gabon dioxide) between January and April 1980. The new device let the scientists confirm occurrence of a molecular-population inversion, necessary for lasing.
The natural laser on Mars, identical in principle to man-made lasers with commercial, scientific, and military applications, had a total continuous power output of more than a million megawatts, equivalent to that generated by a thousand large hydroelectric-power projects; in fact, the Mars laser generated more than five times the total power output of the United States. The investigators said orbiting satellites might eventually be able to extract power from the natural laser and beam it wherever needed. (NASA Release 8178)
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