Curioser and curioser: Little Mars rover sniffs out highest ever levels of methane The Mars Curiosity Rover has found unexpectedly high levels of methane on the red planet. It is still not clear whether the source of the gas was the lettings off of microscopic organisms or whether it was produced by rocks interacting with water. The gas was detected by the Rover's tunable laser spectrometer. It found …
A total lunar eclipse from earth is a total solar eclipse, not partial. In fact, any part of the moon in the umbra (core shadow) of earth experiences a total solar eclipse. The red light shown in this shot I took on January 21, is simply light refracted through the Earth's atmosphere. The Earth would appear ringed with fire, most likely
The word "source" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, though, isn't it? The same rocks are a "source of water" in the same way - it's either physically trapped, a molecule here and a molecule there in a crystalline lattice, or chemically incorporated into the mineral itself. Either way, you're not gonna extract it by squeezing, no matter how hard.
Soup dragon's got thick pea on the menu. Lovely, but deadly.
I guess another curiousity relates to biogenic vs geochemical oil/gas production here on Earth, ie fossil vs non-fossil fuels. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of this given geochemical I think relies on heat, and Mars isn't thought to be particularly active.. So an alternative that it's biogenic means there is/was life on Mars.
-- it would be no surprise, really.
Most planetary geologists think that Mars had lakes and rivers early on (linky). Paleontologists think that life got started on Earth very early (linky). And since Earth's biological realm goes very deep underground (linky) then it would seem unsurprising if life started on Mars, and also that it persists deep underground. Flourishes, even.
Cheers for the link. I've also read a couple of papers suggesting the Earth has too much water, ie it's producing water underground that then finds it's way to the surface.. Which if true, I guess is good news & counters evaporation and us ending up like Mars. Which I guess also suggests that the possible cooling of Mar's core slowed/stopped processes like that.
Also curious if the Mars rovers can do isotope analysis on the methane & try to date the carbon to link possible fossil/biogenic causes or fresher methane.
"I've also read a couple of papers suggesting the Earth has too much water"
I keep seeing this sort of thing reported.
It doesn't have too much water. It has the water it has. If the theory says it shouldn't have as much water the theory is wrong and the theorist needs a new theory, not the Earth less water. It's called science.
It doesn't have too much water. It has the water it has. If the theory says it shouldn't have as much water the theory is wrong and the theorist needs a new theory, not the Earth less water. It's called science.
Well, quite. Come up with a theory, collect evidence, publish and throw it out there for comment. One theory is that the Earth has a finite amount of water and it just gets moved around a bit. Notably during Ice Ages. But biogenic methane production can also generate water, as can other geophysical processes, so 'new' water is produced. But the Earth is hotter and has better conditions for biogenic production than Mars. There's even a wiki page about it, which also answers the question as to whether Curiosity can do isotopic analysis-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_on_Mars
But explaining the observations found on Mars is science, and also has implications for Earth science..
Unfortunately though, Mars is giving every other sign that it is barren and devoid of life. For example, the atmosphere is in chemical equilibrium and, despite all the orbiters, landers and rovers, no overt signs of life have yet been detected.
Other views are available, but it seems that tidally-heated moons like Europa (Jupiter) and Enceladus (Saturn) have a greater potential for microbial life.
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