Nasa finds evidence of 'life on Mars': Curiosity rover picks up methane 'burps'

[Donger]

Pretty hopeful, IMO, but interesting nonetheless...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...s-9929510.html

Evidence of life on Mars could have been found by Nasa's Curiosity Rover.

Mysterious spikes of methane that cannot easily be explained by geology or other theories have been found by one of the instruments on the robot, which landed on the planet in 2012. Scientists can’t be sure what is causing the spikes, but it is possible that it could be very small, bacteria-like living organisms.

If the gas is coming from living, breathing microbes then it would mark one of the biggest discoveries in history. On Earth, 95% of methane comes from microbial organisms.

Scientists have said that the rover now has to test and re-test the possibility of life, ahead of a manned mission in 2020 that would look for the source of the methane.

Previous satellite observations have detected unusual plumes of methane on the planet, but none as extraordinary as the sudden "venting" measured at Gale Crater, where evidence suggests water once flowed billions of years ago.

The laboratory onboard the rover has been sniffing methane in the atmosphere a dozen times in the last 12 months. In late 2013 and early 2014, the amount of methane flared up, and then receded.

Other possible explanations include the Sun's rays degrading organic material that was left behind by meteors, Nasa scientists said at the press conference announcing the news. But that explanation still relies on the original material being deposited, they said.

Curiosity, one of Nasa's two Mars Exploration Rovers, landed in the 96 mile-wide crater in August 2012 and has been exploring the region since.

Last year Nasa reported that Gale contained the remains of an ancient freshwater lake where there may have been a hospitable environment for life in the distant past.

The new discovery, reported in the journal Science, followed studies of gas samples by Curiosity's Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TAS), an instrument that uses intense light to carry out chemical analysis.

It revealed a low background level of methane which spiked 10-fold over a period of just 60 Martian days.

In four sequential measurements, Curiosity showed the methane level soaring from about 0.69 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) to 7.2 ppbv.

The spikes occurred within 200 to 300 metres of each other and less than a kilometre from where the lower readings were detected.

By the time Curiosity had travelled a further kilometre, the higher methane levels had disappeared.

In their paper, the US scientists led by Dr Chris Webster, from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, wrote: "The persistence of the high methane values over 60 sols (Martian days) and their sudden drop 47 sols later is not consistent with a well-mixed event, but rather with a local production or venting that, once terminated, disperses quickly."

The wind direction indicated a source to the north of the rover.

Life is the chief producer of methane on Earth, but there are many non-biological processes that can also generate the gas.

The low background level of methane detected by Curiosity can be explained by the Sun's rays degrading organic material possibly deposited by meteors, said the Nasa scientists.

But the spikes of methane required an additional source, which was unlikely to be a recent impact by comet or asteroid. Such an object would have had to measure several metres across and would have left a large crater, no sign of which was visible.

The short time-scale of the methane spikes did not suggest that the gas was released from volcanic deposits trapped in ice, called clathrates. Nor did it appear to come from the release of gaseous methane that had become bound to the soil.

An image taken by Curiosity Mars as seen by the Curiosity rover (NASA)
The Nasa authors are cautious about jumping to conclusions, but conclude that "methanogenesis" - the formation of methane by microbial bugs known as methanogens - may be one answer to the riddle.

They wrote: "Our measurements spanning a full Mars year indicate that trace quantities of methane are being generated on Mars by more than one mechanism or a combination of proposed mechanisms - including methanogenesis either today or released from past reservoirs, or both."

Gale Crater, on the Martian equator, was created when a large meteor struck the planet 3.5 billion to 3.8 billion years ago.

At its centre is a high mountain, named Mount Sharp, that rises 18,000ft above the crater floor. Flowing water appears to have carved channels in the sides of the mountain and the crater walls.

Another major discovery by Curiosity was that of water bound in the fine-grained soil within the crater. Each cubic foot of Martian soil was found to contain around two pints of water, not freely accessible but attached to minerals.

The rover has reached the base of Mount Sharp and over the coming months will begin a slow climb. Scientists are especially keen to explore the mountain because its sedimentary layers provide tantalising snapshots of Martian history.

The question of whether there is, or was, life on Mars may finally be answered by the European Space Agency's ExoMars mission, which will land a 300kg rover on the Red Planet in 2019.

ExoMars will be equipped with a two-metre drill and the ability to detect biomarkers of life. It will not be heading for Gale Crater, however. Because it will land with less precision than Curiosity, the crater and its mountain are considered too potentially hazardous.

[Iconic]

Wow this ties in REALLY well with an article I had to read for MicroBio.

http://newswire.uark.edu/articles/24...ian-conditions

[eDave]

I, personally, am stoked! Great post from keg.

[Baby Lee]

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show!
Is there life on Mars?

[Bufkin]

I'm still waiting for Dave Lane to show up and start wacking off on everybody because of the AWESOME advances in science.

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Bufkin

I'm still waiting for Dave Lane to show up and start wacking off on everybody because of the AWESOME advances in science.

What's wrong with awesome advances in science?

[ct]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

They've been slowly building up to this announcement for years. Aware (or suspected) since the voyager landers in the 70s but for some reason hesitant to make any official statements. Maybe they're still following the Brookings report from the 60s. Who knows. But they've been laying a trail toward this for years, particularly with numerous recent statements about water in various places. The writing's been on the wall.

Proof of any kind of life anywhere outside our own atmosphere is going to be one of the biggest events in history. It basically moves the idea of a universe potentially teeming with life from speculation to reality.

Viking, but yep you are right on

Why exactly they have refused to really talk about it is pretty silly.

[Bufkin]

Originally Posted by eDave

What's wrong with awesome advances in science?

Nothing.

[BWillie]

I think it's more likely people could live in Venus on cloud colonies than on Mars, at least in the next 500 years.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by ct

Viking, but yep you are right on

Why exactly they have refused to really talk about it is pretty silly.

Brain said one thing, fingers went another direction.

[Rain Man]

If I was a programmer for NASA, it would be very hard to resist putting an Easter egg in the system somewhere that would display a heat signature of a herd of Martian wildebeests, or a CGI bluff charge by a Martian bear.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Donger

Scientists have said that the rover now has to test and re-test the possibility of life, ahead of a manned mission in 2020 that would look for the source of the methane.

I have no idea what this is talking about. Maybe "planned" instead of "manned"?

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I think it's more likely people could live in Venus on cloud colonies than on Mars, at least in the next 500 years.

Way too hot.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I think it's more likely people could live in Venus on cloud colonies than on Mars, at least in the next 500 years.

No...

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I agree that it should be, but it's not.

As far as how much life per solar system, my guess is we're going to find life literally everywhere eventually, it just may not necessarily be recognizable to us as such right away (or right now). We're finding life in all kinds of places previously thought to be inhospitable on earth, so I don't see why the wider universe would be any different.

The next question of course will be intelligent life...

Given the math, as Rausch mentioned, it's out there. I think the big question is going to be how we explain the Fermi paradox. The numbers suggest that life is out there all over the place, but we haven't been contacted by anyone.

It's highly possible (and perhaps even likely) that solar systems are just plain too far apart for us to ever actually contact any other life before we get wiped out.