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NASA Rover Fails to Turn Up Methane On Mars
The Washington Post is one of many sources to report the possibly disappointing news that NASA's Curiosity rover has failed to find any methane on Mars. "[NASA planetary scientist Michael] Mumma had high hopes for a positive result because he and his colleagues believe they have detected methane on Mars remotely, from telescopes on Earth that can discern the chemical nature of Mars’s atmosphere. A European orbiter around Mars also spotted methane. But the methane has proved ephemeral — now you see it, now you don’t. Mumma said he and his colleagues are reviewing their work to see if there is some error in the mix. Perhaps the methane simply disappears quickly on Mars, through some unknown chemical process. 'It’s possible that we don’t understand something that’s going on in the Martian atmosphere,' said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.'"
there are no cows on Mars.
As I had long suspected.
On the one hand, we've had a lot of experience with spectroscopy, and on the other we have a rover actually there.
Depending on exactly where in the atmosphere the light used for the spectroscopy data is coming from, they might both be accurate: If you were working by telescope, Earth should show plenty of ozone; but if your ground-level sampling station is turning up any nontrival amount, that means that something is rather wrong...
Were that the case, I have no doubt that all sorts of vexing questions about how such a methane distribution could come to be would come up; but atmospheres do vary by location.
As I remember from a discussion we had on Friday the methane detection claim has been held in some doubt because he didn't take the redshift/blueshift context into account. It's likely the ground observation just saw the methane in Earth's atmosphere. The satellite observation is harder to explain -- if the methane was there and disappeared, the forces making it go away would have to be over a hundred times more powerful than it is on Earth, a planet with a much more volatile atmosphere.
Can't find water, can't find their DICP, can't find methane - no wonder they have a hard time finding funding :)
The Council has declared a day of rejoicing, relaxation and release as intelligence reports from the blue world confirm that the latest invader from the blue world has failed to detect appreciable quantities of quadrohydrocarbon.
K'Breel, Speaker for the Council, addressed a tightly-clenched world: "Our collective tightening effort over the past year has not gone in vain. Long and hard have we clenched, and now it is time for all right-thinking citizens to reap the rewards. Our symbol must no more be the clenched fist, but the unfolded flower! REJOICE with your podmates, RELAX your cloacae, and RELEASE upon our impoverished atmosphere a deluge of accumulated flatulence so great that the very canyon walls shall shake, enveloping the invaders in dust and cutting off their vital power!"
When a junior reporter reminded the Speaker that the latest invader was powered by something other than mere radiant stellar energy, K'breel, in his mercy, had both of the junior reporter's cloacae sealed until the pressure of accumulated quadrohydrocarbon was released through the second-weakest point of structural failure: the gelsacs.
Whenever ephemeral methane is detected around here I blame the closest dog...
Seriously, with the oddball magnetic field structure that focuses on the southern hemisphere (insert Uranus joke here) it's a wonder solar ablation has not wiped all gases from the place. As the solar wind (fart joke optional) takes gas from lesser protected areas of the globe gravity pretty much demands that pressures equalize, but I'm not sure if you would get a tequila sunrise effect(lighter elements on top) or if the normal heat engine circulation of an atmosphere would keep things mixed enough that traces of light things like methane would remain without a source of replenishment. And that's the real question, is there a cause for new methane to be released into the atmosphere of Mars? Or could it be that we are reading gases BETWEEN here and the target when we do these long distance detections... Because if it is inter-planetary or even interstellar methane we detect, then I'm going to blame it on Space Truckers...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
The name change isn't due for a few centuries, astronomers still think it's funny.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I'm actually rather pleased that no life has been found. This increases the probability of the long term survival of humanity.
After all, if some simple life form existed on Mars, we could reasonably expect the galaxy to be teeming with life everywhere. And in the right conditions (which exist in plenty of places), we would expect those life forms to have evolved just like we did. So why haven't we received any intelligent signals from space, then? Only one variable left: maybe intelligent civilisations tend not to survive very long. Maybe we're overdue for some huge natural disaster, or maybe it's just the inherent instability of civilisations with huge destructive power in the hands of individuals.
If, on the other hand, no life is found on Mars, the very occurrence of the first basic forms of life may be so extremely rare that that explains why we haven't detected any other civilisations.