Reply to post: Re: I can help with that...

NASA's Curiosity finds signs of ancient life on Mars. Or maybe not. More data needed

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: I can help with that...

cabbage and pears and really good chili con carne with beans!! That would DEFINITELY be biological.

/me pointing out that C14 is created in the atmosphere by cosmic radiation (or that's the theory). C12 generally stayed closer to the ground. Although nitrogen is responsible for C14 it is likely (due to the presence of nitrogen throughout the solar system) that Mars once had lots of it in the atmosphere, as does earth. Jupiter and Saturn have a lot of ammonia, i.e. NH3, in their atmospheres. But CO2 is much heavier than most other gases and so when Mars lost most of its atmosphere, the lighter stuff virtually disappeared, leaving the heavier components like CO2 in higher relative concentration than you find on Earth.

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