Posted by tourdemars to Terraforming at March 1, 2004 12:00 PM

Mars’ brush with Earth in August - closest in 60,000 years - gave astronomers a peek into the Red Planet’s atmosphere that revealed why oxygen levels remain too low for humans to breathe. The culprit, researchers are reporting today, is hydrogen peroxide - the stuff familiar on Earth as an antiseptic for cuts. Dr. R. Todd Clancy, who headed the research, in an interview described it as the first detection of hydrogen peroxide in the Martian atmosphere, and a landmark in understanding that thin shroud of gases.