Largest Methane Spike Ever, Curiosity Rover to Examine it Further |
Largest Methane Spike Ever, Curiosity Rover to Examine it Further |
Jun 22 2019, 05:09 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 68 Joined: 27-March 15 Member No.: 7426 |
It's been reported today that a release of methane on Mars, three times larger than ever detected before, was discovered on Wednesday. On Friday the Curiosity rover had its plans altered, in order to concentrate on this phenomenon, it's said. Preliminary results of this investigation are expected on Monday. Further information is available in the article, linked below:
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Jul 28 2019, 10:36 PM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Hmm. On that note, I've heard very little about SAM's ability to detect perchlorates and peroxides. I assume that they are far too volatile to be inferred from GCMS data?
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jul 28 2019, 11:43 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
That's a good point, but also, GCMS only provides the mass of a molecule and that becomes ambiguous for large molecular weights (and sometimes, for smaller ones like CO vs N2). Not only do different substances have the same MW, but different isotopes of one substance will have results ±1, ±2 (etc) of the mode.
Perchlorate molecules would have a molecular weight of about 100-200, and then you're left to interpret what compound produced a result of, say, 138. |
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