Posted on 12/29/2020 8:53:26 PM PST by BenLurkin
For many years, planetary scientists have been tracking a Martian ghost: methane gas.
It was first seen by ground-based observations of Mars back in the 2000s, then subsequently by spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet. But these observations barely detected it, and have been called into question time and again. There's been much debate, and some of the claims have been contradictory
So the European Space Agency sent a probe to Mars called the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, equipped with a device on it called the Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery, or NOMAD*. It can look for many different gases, including methane, in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways.
Despite looking very hard for Martian methane over a long period of time, none was found. They also looked for ethane and ethylene, slightly more complex molecules similar to methane, and found none. The best they do was report upper limits (meaning, their observations would've seen these molecules had they been more abundant than the numbers reported). These limits are low: For methane, there was no more than 0.06 parts per billion when measured by volume (like having 60 liters of methane in a cube a kilometer on a side). Ethane and ethylene couldn't have been more abundant than 0.1 and 0.7 parts per billion, either.
...
So does this rule out methane on Mars? Well, yes and no. This is certainly a very strong constraint on it. Any methane produced by, say, an underground pocket getting popped open would show a strong local signal for a month or so, but then would get mixed around the atmosphere. Since they didn't see any, that means any source like this would have to be pretty sporadic.
(Excerpt) Read more at syfy.com ...
Saw what they did to Virginia, I think the Zags are the real deal this year, they may run the table.
You read the book?
[[Mars methane mysteriously missing]]
No mystery- Eric Swallwell has it all
At least NOMAD was (relatively) easily contained, unlike V-Ger...
Mars hardly has an atmosphere IIRC. Once again, IIRC, this is a function of Mars having next to no magnetic field to shield itself from incessant buffeting from the solar wind.
Because Mars does not have a magnetic core, it cannot produce a magnetosphere which shields the planet from the charged particle of the solar wind. It is this solar wind that strips the planet of whatever atmosphere it may produce. Any plans for terraforming Mars are pipe dreams. The solar wind will strip away any atmosphere produced by terraforming—including methane—as quickly as it is produced.
However as the molten core cools down the magnetic field begins to weaken and the atmosphere begins to dissipate.
This is quite likely what has happened to Mars in it's distant past.
Earth's iron core spinning and passing through the magnetic field of the sun generates Earth's own magnetic field.
Mars could be too far away, too small of an iron core (if at all) or having the shit knocked out of it by another heavenly body, creating two moons, and stripping it of all atmosphere.
The heat can in fact keep it molten. (pressure)
Perhaps while coalescing, or even after, the heavier stuff migrating to the middle over eons, Not sure if 100% iron, but definitely more dense elements, in proper percentage.
I don't know why so much iron, or how it got introduced into the system, not within my AO.
Regardless, passing an iron core through a magnetic field, while spinning, will produce electromagnetic fields.
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