More Mars News

[kameuh]

Forget the Nasa announcements about past water on Mars, as most people were saying "tell us something we didnt already know." Now this is interesting and it didnt even involve either rover.

Methane find on Mars may be sign of life

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

27 March 2004

A strong signal of life on Mars has been detected by scientists at the US National Aeronautics and Space Admin- istration (Nasa) and the European Space Agency.

Each group has independently discovered tantalising evidence of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Methane, a waste product of living organisms on Earth, could also be a by-product of alien microbes living under the surface of the Red Planet.

The detection of methane has been the holy grail of scientists studying the Martian atmosphere, as its presence could provide unequivocal proof that there is life beyond Earth.

Neither Nasa nor the European Space Agency (ESA) has publicly announced the findings, but specialists who have seen the data believe the discovery is genuine - although they are unsure what it means in terms of confirming the presence of life.

The discovery comes weeks after Nasa and ESA announced new findings relating to the presence of huge bodies of water on Mars which could have supported life.

The European effort is led by Vittorio Formisano, of the Institute of Physics and Interplanetary Science in Rome, who operates the methane-detecting spectrometer on board the Mars Express spacecraft orbiting the planet. "We can identify the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere and we've been able to evaluate how much of it there would be," Professor Formisano said. "Globally, if I average all the data I have, I can find something of the order of 10 or 10.5 parts per billion. It's detectable, but only if I average a lot of data."

Methane is destroyed by the intense ultraviolet radiation on Mars because the gas has a relatively short photochemical lifetime of about 300 years, so if it is present there must be something producing it continually, Professor Formisano said. "[its presence] is significant and very important. If it is present you need a source," he added.

The second group to detect signals of methane in the Martian atmosphere is led by Michael Mumma of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, who used powerful spectroscopic telescopes based on Earth.

This team is even believed to have detected variations in the concentrations of methane, with a peak coming from the ancient Martian seabed of Meridiani Planum, which is being explored by a Nasa rover.

This could indicate a subterranean source of methane which is pumping out the gas, either due to some residual geological activity or because of the presence of living organisms producing it as a waste gas.

Asked whether the continual production of methane is strong evidence of a biological origin of the gas, Dr Mumma said: "I think it is, myself personally."

He added: "It's difficult to imagine that primordial methane [from geological activity] would continue outgassing for four billion years [the age of Mars]. This looks very intriguing."

Both teams of scientists are now busy validating their results before their respective organisations are prepared to go public on the implications.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=505454

[Mad Mike]

Cool! :cool:

[NavyDave]

I think this episode was on the justice league where the astronauts went digging and earth was invaded and the aliens used smog to blot out the sun.

OMG!!

My SUV may be contributing to a martian invasion!!

[Tarhog]

In SPACE...

No one can HEAR you FART.

[Renegade7]

Originally posted by Tarhog

In SPACE...

No one can HEAR you FART.

:laugh:

At least we know what alien 5 is going to be about.

[Buddha]

It's just the underground Martian cows.

[miragv]

we should go there and turn it in to earth. how hard could it possibly be? just put some fertile earth dirt there and plant a boat load of trees and other vegetation. after a while there will be oxygen. then we can send some monkeys up there to see if the evolve into humans...

man i am smart

[Commander PK]

I think this sounds pretty promising. I've always thought that there probably is life on other planets. We will see what happens.

[kameuh]

Life On Mars Likely - Scientists

By Rowan Hooper

Wired News

5-3-5

Not so long ago it was unthinkable for respectable scientists to talk about life on Mars. Such talk was best left to X-Files fans. But no longer.

Evidence is building to suggest biological processes might be operating on the red planet, and life on Mars, many scientists believe, is now more a likelihood than merely a possibility.

Tantalizing evidence is accumulating that suggests the red planet is alive, but incontrovertible proof is still lacking. And while the European Space Agency is keen to send a lander to find it, a history of failed life-finding missions at NASA makes Americans more cautious.

"The life on Mars issue has recently undergone a paradigm shift," said Ian Wright, an astrobiologist at the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute at the Open University in Britain, "to the extent now that one can talk about the possibility of present life on Mars without risking scientific suicide."

Much of the excitement is due to the work of Vittorio Formisano, head of research at Italy's Institute of Physics and Interplanetary Space.

In February, Formisano presented data at the Mars Express Science Conference at Noordwijk in the Netherlands. If scientists had been quietly excited before seeing Formisano's data, they were frenetic afterward.

Formisano showed evidence of the presence of formaldehyde in the atmosphere. Formaldehyde is a breakdown product of methane, which was already known to be present in the Martian atmosphere, so in itself its presence is not so surprising. But Formisano measured formaldehyde at 130 parts per billion.

To astrobiologists it was an incredible claim. It means huge amounts of methane must be produced on Mars. (While methane lasts for hundreds of years in the atmosphere, formaldehyde lasts for only 7.5 hours.) "It requires that 2.5 million tons of methane are produced a year," said Formisano.

"There are three possible scenarios to explain the quantities: chemistry at the surface, caused by solar radiation; chemistry deep in the planet, caused by geothermal or hydrothermal activity; or life," he added.

And, with no known geological source of formaldehyde on Mars, it's clear where Formisano's suspicions lie.

"I believe there is extremely high probability that microbial subsurface life exists on Mars," he said, while acknowledging that although he believes in Martian life, he can't yet prove it.

"What will certainly be needed in the future is a drill on a lander and direct evidence of the existence of Archaea bacteria," Formisano said, adding that he intends to publish his data in a forthcoming issue of planetary science journal Icarus.

The European Space Agency certainly wants to send a rover to Mars, and was urged to do so at an international space workshop at Aston University in Birmingham, England, earlier this month. To get a lander on Mars will almost certainly require the involvement, at some level, of NASA.

But NASA has its own surface mission planned. Scheduled to arrive in late 2010, the Mars Science Laboratory rover will use an array of instruments to look for evidence of life.

"Europe and the U.S. are in a friendly competition to find life first," said Yuk Yung, professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, "which is healthy for science -- and funding."

The race to find proof of life started in earnest in 1996, after NASA scientists published a paper claiming that the Martian meteorite ALH84001 contained evidence of past biological activity. While that claim remains controversial, it kick-started a change in mood about the possibility of present life on Mars. Excitement grew in 2003 when Michael Mumma, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, reported he had detected methane in the Martian atmosphere.

Then last year Vladimir Krasnopolsky, of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., made a similar claim about methane. Both researchers had measured methane using ground-based telescopes.

But while the issue of life on Mars may have undergone a paradigm shift, it is really only in Europe that scientists are openly excited. In the United States, NASA is cagey.

According to Wright at the Open University, NASA is gun-shy about sending up another life-finding Martian probe.

"NASA staff probably still remember Viking, which was a mission designed specifically to look for life on Mars, but which found none -- and which subsequently killed off Martian exploration for a couple of decades," he said. "ESA people don't have such baggage."

© Copyright 2005, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

http://wired.com/news/space/0,2697,67315,00.html

[MaddogCT]

Don't light a match!!!!

:logo:

[HapHaszard]

cow farts?

[codeorama]

Of course there is life on mars.. what do you think martians are... duh...

[stevenaa]

"No one can HEAR you FART."

Yes, but if you fart and no one hears it, did you really fart? Only the nose knows!!

[Bang]

Unfortunately, science is not taking into account Newton's 12th law, "He Who Smelt It, Dealt It". If that law proves true, we are merely sniffing our own ass.

Amazing, what if we actually discover life because it farted? The sign of peace throughout the galaxy may be a single finger extended, and a request for a pull.

~Bang

[Mickalino]

I know for a fact that there is life on Mars.

I work with some people from that planet.

[herrmag]

Originally posted by stevenaa

"No one can HEAR you FART."

Yes, but if you fart and no one hears it, did you really fart? Only the nose knows!!

:laugh: :laugh:

(Yes, a shameless emoticon post. But damn it, that's funny)

[Riggo-toni]

Originally posted by Tarhog

In SPACE...

No one can HEAR you FART.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[Henry]

Originally posted by Mickalino

I know for a fact that there is life on Mars.

I work with some people from that planet.

Are they stinky?

[SkinsNatsFan]

Originally posted by Bang

Unfortunately, science is not taking into account Newton's 12th law, "He Who Smelt It, Dealt It". If that law proves true, we are merely sniffing our own ass.

Amazing, what if we actually discover life because it farted? The sign of peace throughout the galaxy may be a single finger extended, and a request for a pull.

~Bang

:rotflmao: