Conundrum. Researchers can't predict why methane (red and yellow areas) is so spotty in the Martian atmosphere.
Credit: NASA
Posted on 08/08/2009 9:43:07 AM PDT by neverdem
Conundrum. Researchers can't predict why methane (red and yellow areas) is so spotty in the Martian atmosphere.
Credit: NASA
Just as researchers were once again getting their hopes up, a new study undercuts the prospects for martian life. Scientists have discovered that methane in the martian atmosphere, one of the primary signals that biological processes may be at work today on the red planet, is behaving in unexplainable ways. The results challenge the latest evidence suggesting that Mars is--or was ever--inhabited.
Mars has been a roller coaster for astrobiologists. In 1996, for example, researchers reported that a martian meteorite found in Antarctica contained traces of microbial fossils. But subsequent research discredited the idea. More recently, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) two rovers and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found plentiful evidence that liquid water once flowed on the planet's surface. But none of those discoveries has led to undisputed proof that living organisms swam in Martian pools.
The latest buzz about possible Martian life started last January when a 5-year study confirmed the existence of methane in the martian atmosphere. Methane is the strongest sign yet that biology is at work on our planetary neighbor, because it is produced almost exclusively by living organisms.
But the way the methane is distributed in the martian atmosphere argues against a biological origin, researchers report tomorrow in Nature. The methane is concentrated in a single part of the atmosphere (see picture). The problem, say chemists Franck Lefàvre and François Forget, both of the Universitaire Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, is that whether or not life is responsible for the emissions--and even if martian organisms were located only in one area of the planet--the methane should have spread much more uniformly through the atmosphere by now. The fact that it hasn't, the researchers say, argues for some sort of chemical reaction in the atmosphere that is destroying the gas before it can spread. And any reaction that destroys methane would also destroy life because the gas is made from the same types of molecules that make up life as we know it.
There's no doubt "that something is rapidly destroying the methane in the martian atmosphere," says planetary scientist Michael Mischna of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Whatever is responsible, he says, "there's no way life could survive at or near the surface if [methane] destruction occurred so quickly."
Planetary scientist Itay Halevy, of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, agrees. The rapid destruction of methane on Mars is a "disturbing" discovery, he says.
I did not invent escape velocity. Newton figured that out.
I was addressing the argument that any microbes found on Mars MUST have come from Earth. The Allen Hills meteorite showed evidence of extreme heat on the exterior. The force required to blast a rock off of Mars at escape velocity would be extreme. Mars gravity is 39% of Earth. Therefore, the energy required would be the difference squared or about 6.5 times more energy to get a rock from Earth up to escape velocity vs. Mars.
Still no takers.
But you invented the (pointless) claim regarding sterilization.
I was addressing the argument that any microbes found on Mars MUST have come from Earth.
No, were simply denying that challenge to your faith. When asked for a source, you just reiterated your earlier claims.
Therefore, the energy required would be the difference squared or about 6.5 times more energy to get a rock from Earth up to escape velocity vs. Mars.
Again, so what?
Still no takers.
Any microbes found there will have originated here. Assuming that your next "fossil" claim isn't debunked outright like the last one.
DNA analysis will provide proof as to whether microbes on Mars came from Earth or the other way around.
Must be nice to be able to simply invent all of your "facts" out of thin air. How did the "DNA analysis" of the Martian microbe fossils you saw with your "own eyes" turn out? You know, the ones that turned out to actually be magnetite?
So tell me something. Where in the Bible does it say anything about life on Mars either way? And if they find some bacteria or something how is that a secular substitute for God?
Your "God" is a substitute for rational thought and ordinary human decency.
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“Search for Past Life on Mars: Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001
David S. McKay, Everett K. Gibson Jr., Kathie L. Thomas-Keprta, Hojatollah Vali, Christopher S. Romanek, Simon J. Clemett, Xavier D. F. Chillier, Claude R. Maechling, Richard N. Zare
Fresh fracture surfaces of the martian meteorite ALH84001 contain abundant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These fresh fracture surfaces also display carbonate globules. Contamination studies suggest that the PAHs are indigenous to the meteorite. High-resolution scanning and transmission electron microscopy study of surface textures and internal structures of selected carbonate globules show that the globules contain fine-grained, secondary phases of single-domain magnetite and iron sulfides. The carbonate globules are similar in texture and size to some terrestrial bacterially induced carbonate precipitates. Although inorganic formation is possible, formation of the globules by biogenic processes could explain many of the observed features, including the PAHs. The PAHs, the carbonate globules, and their associated secondary mineral phases and textures could thus be fossil remains of a past martian biota.”
Somewhat different from,
“Those nanofossils are almost identical to certain Earth microbes.”
No you don't.
So tell me something. Where in the Bible does it say anything about life on Mars either way?
So tell me something. Where is the Bible mentioned in any of my posts?
Your God is the Prince of liars.
I was referring to a different paper that compared the nanofossils from Allen Hills (f that’s what they were) with Earth nanobacteria fossils found in a core sammple taken 2 miles down in Oregon basalt.
Needless to say, it may be a generation or two before the question of life on Mars is settled. As to origin, Earth or Mars, I await evidence.
I offered the bet because we have extremophiles on Earth that would do just ducky on Mars. I don’t have a belief either way.
The other reason is to avoid the loneliness.
“I offered the bet because we have extremophiles on Earth that would do just ducky on Mars. I don’t have a belief either way.”
Theres no way to know that unless some earth microbes are taken to Mars and planted.
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