Slashdot Mirror
Curiosity Detects Mysterious Methane Spikes On Mars
astroengine writes: A gas strongly associated with life on Earth has been detected again in the Martian atmosphere, opening a new chapter in a decade-old mystery about the on-again, off-again appearance of methane on Mars. The latest discovery comes from NASA's Curiosity rover, which in addition to analyzing rocks and soil samples, is sniffing the air at its Gale Crater landing site. A year ago, scientists reported that Curiosity had come up empty-handed after an eight-month search for methane in the atmosphere, leaving earlier detections by ground-based telescopes and Mars-orbiting spacecraft an unexplained anomaly. "We thought we had closed the book on methane. It was disappointing to a lot of people that there wasn't significant methane on Mars, but that's where we were," Curiosity scientist Christopher Webster with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Discovery News.
I'm really sorry. Excuse me.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Related links:
JPL update:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4413
Research papers:
http://go.nasa.gov/1cbk35X
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/12/15/science.1261713.full.pdf?ijkey=wh80Qt3dcQZKw&keytype=ref&siteid=sci
Who gives a fart about Mars these days?
I expected that around Uranus, but not Mars.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
there once was life on Mars, and it left methane hydrates in somewhat permafrost type situation that gets slightly warmed at times
Oh my Gawd! It's the first signs of global warming on Mars!!!! All them dang human's fault. Especially the white, male, middle aged, Republican ones. /sarcasm
He who smelt it dealt it.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
no no no the USA doesn't invade a country. Russia invaded Crimera and is still there.
the USA storms in messes up the place, kicks holes in the walls, maybe set some drapes on fire, and then brings in new drapes, and if you are lucky puts the furniture back into the correct orientation. We then empower the locals through bribes to continue working with us. While our soldiers head back home. Which then creates warlords that we have to mess up the place again in the future.
You see invasions mean our troops stay. in reality the USA marches in and marches back out again and again.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
What, so in your own words, Mars shows no signs of life, except for farting, and Venus is very stormy and no-one can touch (land on) her? Sounds about right!
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
Here is a non-paywalled version of the actual scientific article, including a graph showing the measurements as a function of time on page 7. It's a significant but still faint detection, with the highest value being about 4 standard deviations away from zero.
Yes, there were no troops left in Texas, California, Panama, Philipines, Japan, China, Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Japan (again) Guam, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan.......Unless of course the people there really really begged for those troops to stay.
It's all point of view. There's plenty of Russians that think that annexing the Crimea was a just and caring move to guarantee the longer term safety of the people. Peace on Earth and goodwill to all Russian speaking minorities that love freedom etc..
Everybody means well in these things...don't they?
Rover
There ya go, blaming the dog again.
Have gnu, will travel.