Posted on 04/01/2019 2:00:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Curiosity rover mission recently determined that background levels of methane in Mars' atmosphere cycle seasonally, peaking in the northern summer. The six-wheeled robot has also detected two surges to date of the gas inside the Red Planet's 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater once in June 2013, and then again in late 2013 through early 2014.
These finds have intrigued astrobiologists, because methane is a possible biosignature. Though the gas can be produced by a variety of geological processes, the vast majority of methane in Earth's air is pumped out by microbes and other living creatures.
Some answers may soon be on the horizon, because that June 2013 detection has just been firmed up. Europe's Mars Express orbiter noted the spike as well from that spacecraft's perch high above the Red Planet, a new study reports.
"While previous observations, including that of Curiosity, have been debated, this first independent confirmation of a methane spike increases confidence in the detections," said study lead author Marco Giuranna, of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Rome.
And that's not all. Giuranna and his team also traced the likely source of the June 2013 plume to a geologically complex region about 310 miles (500 kilometers) east of Gale Crater.
The paper doesn't address the ultimate origin of the methane whether it was churned out by Martian microbes or reactions involving hot water and certain types of rock. And scientists don't know if the detected methane was produced recently or long ago; it could have been trapped under the ice for eons, after all.
Mars Express will eye the potential source region in detail in the future, Giuranna said. And other spacecraft, such as the methane-sniffing Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) part of the European-Russian ExoMars program may do so as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Is there an origin for methane other than as a waste product of living things
Yes, dying things.
And geological processes on earth, but not necessarily on other planets.
Titan has no free oxygen in its atmosphere, which is why those methane lakes can continue to exist indefinitely. On Earth anything of the sort would have long since oxidized away.
Mars would be perfect for the Green New Deal.
AOC should create a bill to fund the building of a train to Mars.
—No farting cows.
—No buildings that would need to be rebuilt.
—No carbon footprint from evil Oil and Gas.
—No Amazon facility.
—No airplanes, thus ...
—No airports with overpriced croissants.
—And No conservatives wearing MAGA hats.
Alexi could then resign from Congress to be the chief engineer on that first train to Mars.
Win win win
Yes....Ask google for more info...
“I’m divorcing my wife. She pulled a Mars on me.”
“What does Mars have to do with it?”
“I found her methane around.”
I have methane coming out of my a$$, but there is no sign of life back there.
Or if you check out the hydroplate theory you may find...
- IT CAME FROM EARTH!!!
Center for Scientific Creation
https://www.creationscience.com/
PS it’s a free online book but you don’t have to read 350+ pages b/c there are also loads of video explanations at the site.
Titan is larger than the planet Mercury and is the second largest moon in our solar system. Jupiter's moon Ganymede is just a little bit larger (by about 2 percent). Titans atmosphere is made mostly of nitrogen, like Earths, but with a surface pressure 50 percent higher than Earths. Titan has clouds, rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane. The largest seas are hundreds of feet deep and hundreds of miles wide...
....and no cows for a millions of miles.
Drat. ALL of y’all beat me to it.
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