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Active, Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars


Waspie_Dwarf

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NASA Rover Finds Active, Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill.

"This temporary increase in methane -- sharply up and then back down -- tells us there must be some relatively localized source," said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Curiosity rover science team. "There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock."

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Very interesting find...

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The Telegraph says:

Watch live as a team of Nasa scientists say that evidence of life on Mars may have been detected by the American space agency's Curiosity Rover.

An instrument on the six-wheeled robot identified mysterious spikes of methane that cannot easily be explained by geology or organic material transported to the planet by comets or asteroids.

If the existence of living, breathing microbes on Mars is confirmed, it will be one of the most monumental discoveries in history.

While scientists cannot be sure what is producing the methane, they acknowledge the source could be bacteria-like organisms

http://www.telegraph...nouncement.html

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Edited by seeder
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NASA | Need To Know: Sample Analysis at Mars Findings

There’s big news coming out of the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite (SAM) on NASA’s Curiosity rover. For the first time, organic matter has definitively been detected on Mars. In addition to finding organic compounds in rocks, SAM has also detected sharp increases and decreases in methane levels in the atmosphere. MSL participating scientist, Danny Glavin, explains these findings and what they tell us about our search for life on the Red Planet.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Source: NASA - Goddard Media Studios

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
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i think that the telegraph is jumping the gun a bit here.

It is a rather bold & sensational headline isnt it? Oh well headlines sell papers... so we shall have to wait for further facts rather than speculations.

But...if it were true...

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It is a rather bold & sensational headline isnt it? Oh well headlines sell papers... so we shall have to wait for further facts rather than speculations.

But...if it were true...

if it's the most optimistic thing, it's also the most exciting thing! which is why i want to keep myself cautious.

i mean, even just the findings as they are are exciting.

thanks for the video and all of the information, waspie_dwarf

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It may be possible to decide if the methane on Mars is biologically or geologically produced. Methane produced by living things is expected to have a much higher isotopic ratio of carbon 12 over carbon 13, than that produced by geological processes. A mass spectrometer is needed to make this determination, and fortunately the Curiosity rover has one of these in its Sample Analysis Mars (SAM) toolkit.

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Hmmmm...so, Curiosity is smart enough to detect the farts of cloaked Romulans....

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More likely, the waste gases of methanogenic microbes (Archaea) below Mars' surface. Living things generally favor the use of heavier isotopes, and so expel the lighter. Carbon 12 would be enriched relative to carbon 13. At only 7 parts per billion, I hope there is enough methane (CH4) to make this determination.

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yes it did involuntarily but it disregarded the clues seen in the photos taken.

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yes it did involuntarily but it disregarded the clues seen in the photos taken.

Oh like the fossilised skulls and various critters?

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It may be possible to decide if the methane on Mars is biologically or geologically produced. Methane produced by living things is expected to have a much higher isotopic ratio of carbon 12 over carbon 13, than that produced by geological processes. A mass spectrometer is needed to make this determination, and fortunately the Curiosity rover has one of these in its Sample Analysis Mars (SAM) toolkit.

Terrestrial living things. However, unless this life (if there is indeed life below the surface) is somehow related to Earth life, it may or may not metabolize compounds in the same way. If completely unrelated to Earth life, it would really be alien organisms living in an alien environment and who can say what its life processes might be?

Now we need a robot drill capable of reaching deep underground to see if we can bring up some of the microbes for examination.

Interesting and exciting find though.

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Wow this is awesome and sounds legit. This could be proof of microbial life beneath the surface :)

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So mars farted? Am I reading that right?

Anyways, it would be pretty sweet if there was more than just us in this vast universe of ours.

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Mankind's first encounter with alien life forms?

Is our detecting a lingering fart on anther world.

Even the God of Irony loves a good laugh.

Edited by bubblykiss
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JUst wait for it ! WAIT ! Monkey farts on Mars, and Aliens mining for rare elements, and City`s underground ! NOT ! Must of been my early days watching the Sci-Fi channel ! :tu:

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...but is it or would it be "alien" life if it's within our own solar system and living off of THE SUN? Any microbial life would be some tough SOB's and could've been ejected off of Earth via an impact from a celestial object in the last 3 billion years. To get what I am trying to say....maybe the life form is from here(Earth) and is surviving on Mars after it got displaced there. Whatever the case, this is very fascinating news.

Edited by Atuke
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Oh like the fossilised skulls and various critters?

no, like shells embedded in rocks, metallic object sticking out of the ground, etc.

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no, like shells embedded in rocks, metallic object sticking out of the ground, etc.

No they didn't ignore them, NASA employs some of the best geoloigsts, planetary scientists and astrobiologists in the world. These people know what constitutes a sign of life and what constitutes a rock. They all agree they are just rocks.

Now when it comes to believing the best scientists in the world or you I know who I am going to believe.

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...but is it or would it be "alien" life if it's within our own solar system and living off of THE SUN?

Of course it would. If it is not terrestrial life it must, by definition, be alien life.

It will be alien life even if it shares the same origin as life on Earth.

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Further inquiry revealed that the mass spectrometer on Curiosity can not do isotope ratio analyses at methane levels lower than tens of parts per billion. We'll have to hope for a future methane release five or ten times as large as the one currently being discussed. Then we might have a reasonable chance of answering the question about life on Mars, by this method.

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