Methane On Mars May Indicate Living Planet 200
Riding with Robots writes "NASA is announcing today that the definitive detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere means the planet is still alive, at least geologically, and perhaps even biologically. 'Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas,' said one agency scientist. The gas was detected with observations made over over several Martian years with NASA telescopes at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Both biological and geological processes could explain the methane."
UK has the comic character on Mars! (Score:4, Informative)
Proof right here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Fartpants [wikipedia.org]
Re:Greenhouse gas! That stuff is worse than CO2 .. (Score:3, Informative)
It's not worse than CO2, because it decays relatively quickly in the atmosphere. That's why this find is significant, it means the methane hasn't been in the atmosphere that long, which means there's still an active process on Mars that's putting it there.
Methane on Mars, 2004 (Score:5, Informative)
This was reported by Mars Express [esa.int] in 2004 [bbc.co.uk].
Re:Martian planetary defence system (Score:4, Informative)
In particular, mercaptans, hydrogen sulfide, and other sulfur compounds are responsible for most the disagreeable oder of flatus.
Re:Methane on Mars, 2004 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Let's take that seriously for a moment (Score:4, Informative)
You are confusing two different concepts. This should be an argument about the prevalence of abiogenesis (i.e. the creation of life from non-life), not the ability of life to adapt to harsh environments.
On the other hand, it could turn out that there is life on Mars that was carried there from Earth (e.g. via a chunk of rock that was ejected from Earth and landed on Mars). In that case, we're back to marveling at the resilience of our single tree of life.
Methane is everywhere in the solar system (Score:3, Informative)
Our sun and solar system is a second generation system, made from the rubble of a previous star that went nova billions of years ago.
Jupiter, and Uranus have red spots that indicate Methane in their lower atmosphere. Some moons of Saturn have lakes and rivers of methane (Titan and Europa). That indicates that methane is older than the solar system and was created in the previous solar system that this one is made from.
Consequently, the presence of Methane doesn't say anything about the presence of life.
Re:It's comeing form the under grround citys there (Score:1, Informative)
Joe The Dragon was typing it from an iphone.
1. the subject was with tap-input, hence the misspellings
2. the body was with auto-spell check with the ' put there by his own accord.
I am an AI Robot Firefox Spelling Add On Extension with the Slashdot Anonymous Coward Web Service Inunciator.
Re:Let's take that seriously for a moment (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Deep Hot Biosphere (Score:3, Informative)
Regarding coal:
So all the layers of ferns and trees that I find imprinted throughout a 30 foot thick seam of coking coal aren't evidence enough?
The process of forming coal is well known (Living biosphere -> swamps/peat bogs -> compression from overlying strata -> 5+ million years -> coal, generally)
Regarding oil: If oil *is* being made 'down there', it sure as hell ain't being made in the quantities we currently use daily.
This story is from 2004! (Score:2, Informative)