{"id":69817,"date":"2019-01-30T12:32:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T19:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=69817"},"modified":"2019-01-30T13:22:42","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T20:22:42","slug":"methane-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/methane-on-mars.html","title":{"rendered":"Methane on Mars?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Mars, in a public domain image from the United States Geological Survey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Notes from the 22 December 2018 print edition of The Economist<\/em>, from an article entitled \u201cThe search for life on Mars:\u00a0<\/span>New results suggest there is no methane on Mars:\u00a0<\/span>Living organisms are thus less likely\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the methane in Earth\u2019s atmosphere derives from living organisms, so discovering methane in the atmosphere of Mars would be strongly suggestive of Martian life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alas, though, the preliminary results from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter<\/em>, a European spacecraft that has been orbiting Mars for the past two years, reveal no Martian methane. \u00a0They were shared on 12 November 2018 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, in Washington DC.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some previous observations, drawn both from orbiters and from terrrestrial telescopes, had suggested otherwise. \u00a0And the data from the American Mars rover Curiosity<\/em>, which spent six years sampling on the Martian surface, did seem to find methane and even to detect seasonal variations ranging from 0.25 parts per billion in the winter to 0.65 parts per billion during the summer \u2014 occasionally spiking all the way up to a relatively whopping 7.0 parts per billion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Where would that surface methane originate? \u00a0It might come from space, via carbon-rich molecules arriving aboard meteors and then breaking down into methane. \u00a0Or it might arise beneath the surface of Mars, perhaps concentrated near its source (which Curiosity<\/em> might have been lucky enough to find). \u00a0Subsurface methane could come from a geological or geochemical process that might be heightened during the (relative) warmth of a Martian summer. \u00a0Perhaps, if it\u2019s biological, there might be a subsurface organism that wakes up during the summer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But methane should persist for centuries. \u00a0So the fact that the\u00a0ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter<\/em>,\u00a0which features instrumentation that\u2019s twenty times more sensitive than that aboard Curiosity<\/em>, has failed to find even the slightest trace of methane in the Martian atmosphere is discouraging for those who hoped for signs of organic life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The optimists haven\u2019t given up, though. \u00a0The\u00a0ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter\u00a0<\/em>can\u2019t sample anything lower than five kilometers above the Martian surface. \u00a0And, by sheer bad luck, when it flew over the specific area explored by Curiosity<\/em>, a dust storm obstructed its view of anything within thirty<\/em> kilometers of the surface.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

At least I think that we can confidently rule out any idea that the surface of Mars resembles a giant New Zealand sheep paddock.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"New<\/a>
This doesn\u2019t appear to be a satellite photo from Mars. \u00a0 \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A very slightly related story:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c4bn-year-old \u2018Earth rock\u2019 found in Apollo 14 crew\u2019s moon haul: Scientists say rock must have been blasted to moon, buried then uncovered by asteroid impacts\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other science news:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Iran, parched lands hollowed by water pumping now sinking\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Surprising and refreshing:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnne Hathaway\u2019s Lesson on Celebrity Pseudoscience\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Notes from the 22 December 2018 print edition of The Economist, from an article entitled \u201cThe search for life on Mars:\u00a0New results suggest there is no methane on Mars:\u00a0Living organisms are thus less likely\u201d: \u00a0 Most of the methane in Earth\u2019s atmosphere derives from living organisms, so discovering methane in the atmosphere of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMethane on Mars?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Notes from the 22 December 2018 print edition of The Economist, from an article entitled "The search for life on Mars:\u00a0New results suggest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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