Methane Detection? |
Methane Detection? |
Guest_Sunspot_* |
Mar 26 2004, 01:29 PM
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#1
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Guests |
An interesting article:
http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijournal...ne_and_thu.html http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijournal/ Quote: "Dick Kerr of Science magazine, who's been writing planetary science a good bit longer than most of us in this game, has a remarkable story up on the Science Now site -- something potentially far more striking than the crossbedding announcement. The team on the Mars Express Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) has announced the discovery of what look like methane absorption lines in the Martian atmosphere at 3.3 microns. Kerr quotes the PFS principal investigator, Vittorio Formisano saying it's "A very little amount," -- 10.5 parts per billion -- "but the result is clear." If this is indeed methane, then it's evidence that something is going on: either volcanic activity or life." |
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Mar 26 2004, 02:51 PM
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#2
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Far more important discovery than anything the MER's have found imho - this is the big one - there's not to many ways to generate methane at mars, modern day vulcanism seems unlikely - general outgassing a little more likely - but the most obivous answer is biomass.
Doug |
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Guest_paulanderson_* |
Mar 26 2004, 04:18 PM
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#3
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A few more related links:
'Methane Means Martians?' - ScienceNOW (by subscription) http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2004/324/1 'Does Methane Mean Life of the Red Planet?' - Discovery Channel http://www.discoverychannel.ca/_home/science_popup1.shtml Some earlier commentary re methane on Mars from ESA (no new info posted yet): 'Signatures of Life' http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMSL75V9ED_0.html Two of the other non-ESA spectrometer studies (PDF files), the first from January 2004, the second from 1999 (page 3): 'Detection of Methane in the Martian Atmosphere: Evidence for Life' - Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU04/06169/EGU04-A-06169.pdf 'High-Resolution Spectroscopy of Mars: Recent Results and Implications for Atmospheric Evolution' - Fifth Annual Mars Convention http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data...ICLE&db_key=AST Please note I'm not saying this must be biological(!), but the scientists involved are apparently thinking either a geothermal or biological explanation, if the methane is being replenished somehow to the atmosphere as their findings seem to indicate. Either of those possibilities of course would be exciting. Mars Express has also reportedly found sulphate deposits in Valles Marineris, similar to those at Meridiani, reported by the science team for the OMEGA Near-IR Mapping Spectrometer at the Lunar and Planetary Science conference last week, see comments section of the MainlyMartian web site (scroll down a few paragraphs): http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijournal...i.html#comments |
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Guest_Sunspot_* |
Mar 26 2004, 05:26 PM
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#4
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There's a little more about it here, includig 2 update articles:
http://mainlymartian.blogs.com/semijournal/ |
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Mar 29 2004, 07:05 AM
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#5
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 36 Joined: 9-February 04 Member No.: 14 |
latest news story from BBC...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3577551.stm Says it was detected last year with two earth based IR telescopes. |
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Guest_Sunspot_* |
Mar 29 2004, 08:27 AM
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#6
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Ahhhh.....I see the press are slowly atarting to pick up on this story.
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Mar 29 2004, 02:28 PM
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#7
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Rover Driver Group: Members Posts: 1015 Joined: 4-March 04 Member No.: 47 |
so....why hasn't there been a press release by ESA yet?
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Mar 30 2004, 11:23 AM
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#8
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
QUOTE (remcook @ Mar 29 2004, 02:28 PM) so....why hasn't there been a press release by ESA yet? Esa's crap at the whole publicity thing. Doug |
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Mar 30 2004, 03:08 PM
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#9
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Rover Driver Group: Members Posts: 1015 Joined: 4-March 04 Member No.: 47 |
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Guest_paulanderson_* |
Nov 2 2005, 02:47 AM
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#10
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In another addition to the methane on Mars debate, researchers find methane-producing organisms in Mars-like, arid desert Earth soils:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/200...c-mfi103105.php |
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Guest_paulanderson_* |
Nov 4 2005, 05:39 PM
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#11
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Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Nov 6 2005, 09:26 PM
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#12
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While the article confirms that the Martian CH4 isn't being produced by conventional volcanic reactions, note that it does nothing whatsoever to rule out the production of the methane by the "serpentinization" reaction, and in fact explicitly states at the end of the article that this is a major possibility. Indeed, it's been proposed for some time as the possible source not just of Mars' methane, but of the much larger amount at Titan.
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Guest_paulanderson_* |
Nov 6 2005, 09:48 PM
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#13
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QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ Nov 6 2005, 01:26 PM) While the article confirms that the Martian CH4 isn't being produced by conventional volcanic reactions, note that it does nothing whatsoever to rule out the production of the methane by the "serpentinization" reaction, and in fact explicitly states at the end of the article that this is a major possibility. Indeed, it's been proposed for some time as the possible source not just of Mars' methane, but of the much larger amount at Titan. That's true, I think both theories (serpentinization and biological) are viable at this point. At least there is a process of elimination happening finally. And with Mars Express' PFS working again now, hopefully this will help in making further determinations. |
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Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Nov 11 2005, 08:09 PM
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#14
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QUOTE (paulanderson @ Nov 6 2005, 09:48 PM) That's true, I think both theories (serpentinization and biological) are viable at this point. See also Formation of methane on Mars by fluid-rock interaction in the crust J.R. Lyons, C. Manning and F. Nimmo Geophys. Res. Lett., 32 , L13201, 2005 Reprint Auxiliary Material |
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Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Jan 25 2006, 07:14 PM
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#15
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A new, fairly short paper currently in press with Icarus:
Methane on Mars: A product of H2O photolysis in the presence of CO Icarus, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 25 January 2006 Akiva Bar-Nun and Vasili Dimitrov Abstract |
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