Curiosity rover finds active, ancient organic chemistry on Mars

(Phys.org)—NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill.

“This temporary increase in methane—sharply up and then back down—tells us there must be some relatively localized source,” said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Curiosity rover science team. “There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock.”

Researchers used Curiosity’s onboard Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory a dozen times in a 20-month period to sniff methane in the atmosphere. During two of those months, in late 2013 and early 2014, four measurements averaged seven parts per billion. Before and after that, readings averaged only one-tenth that level.

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Don’t Panic: The Truth About Population
9.30pm – 10.40pm
SBS HD
Tonight

With the world’s population at over seven billion and still growing we often look at the future with dread. In this documentary, world famous Swedish statistical showman Hans Rosling presents a different view, and paints a vivid picture of a world that has changed in ways we barely understand – often for the better. We face huge challenges in terms of food, resources and climate change but at the heart of Professor Rosling’s entertaining and exuberant statistical tour-de-force is the message that the world of tomorrow is a much better place than we might imagine.

“There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock.”

———

Yes, that’s what I thought.

The SMH is reporting it as the first evidence of living organisms outside earth.

The previous thread on this topic is called carbon alert.

ChrispenEvan said:

Don’t Panic: The Truth About Population
9.30pm – 10.40pm
SBS HD
Tonight

With the world’s population at over seven billion and still growing we often look at the future with dread. In this documentary, world famous Swedish statistical showman Hans Rosling presents a different view, and paints a vivid picture of a world that has changed in ways we barely understand – often for the better. We face huge challenges in terms of food, resources and climate change but at the heart of Professor Rosling’s entertaining and exuberant statistical tour-de-force is the message that the world of tomorrow is a much better place than we might imagine.

I stopped watching when he started going on about the British not knowing how many kids the average woman has in bangladesh

seemed a bit stupid, you might have asked them about what they thought about the weather in South America

After that description, I did not watch it.

Could methane from a non-biological origin be an energy source for microbial life.

Cymek said:

Could methane from a non-biological origin be an energy source for microbial life.

Not for energy so much as for growth. Need a lot more than that to make life work, though.

> the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials of Mars.

Cripes. Carbon and hydrogen are two of the three most common elements in the universe, and it’s taken more than ten years of sampling to find even one rock/soil sample containing both carbon and hydrogen. That means there’s an incredibly tiny amount.

mollwollfumble said:

Cymek said:

Could methane from a non-biological origin be an energy source for microbial life.

Not for energy so much as for growth. Need a lot more than that to make life work, though.

> the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials of Mars.

Cripes. Carbon and hydrogen are two of the three most common elements in the universe, and it’s taken more than ten years of sampling to find even one rock/soil sample containing both carbon and hydrogen. That means there’s an incredibly tiny amount.

No

More specifically:

No, carbon and hydrogen are not two of the three most abundant elements in the universe. The top three are H, He and O.
No, it did not take ten years of samples to find a sample that contains hydrogen and carbon.

> No, carbon and hydrogen are not two of the three most abundant elements in the universe. The top three are H, He and O.

In the solar system O is third and C fourth. In the universe I suspect that C is third.

> No, it did not take ten years of samples to find a sample that contains hydrogen and carbon.

Really? Reference?