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 ...
Ban cow farts on Mars!
It’s proof that wild cows once roamed the Martian plains. But they are gone now, and their methane is all that remains.
Cow farts on Mars? Better send OAC to help the Martians save their planet!
Martian farting cows already messing up the ecology there? Ask AOC. She knows. ( /s )
Is there an origin for methane other than as a waste product of living things?
Newborn Baby - nope.
The fact that so much hydrocarbons are found in the solar system brings the whole peak oil theory into question.
Now a sensible guess....underground volcanoes?? but of a different sort than the norm....maybe flat and more like a smoldering campfire
volcanoes
Excellent.
Everybody can just chill. I had kimchi, beer, refried beans and tequila a few nights ago. All in the same evening.
Sorry, the flatulence attained escape velocity because of the massive amount of SO2.
My bad NASA.
5.56mm
Bay Area people will remember the old “Cows? In Berkeley?” ads for a local dairy (Berkeley Farms), but this even better!
When do “Martian Farms” dairy products hit the grocery shelves?
I think that’s pronounced Nasa.
That’s classic!
Yes, people in the know have had the answers for years.
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