The Curiosity Rover Detects Oxygen Behaving Strangely on Mars (cnn.com) 56
NASA's Curiosity rover sniffed out an unexpected seasonal variation to the oxygen on Mars, according to new research. From a report: Since it landed in Gale Crater in 2012, the Curiosity rover has been studying the Martian surface beneath its wheels to learn more about the planet's history. But Curiosity also stuck its nose in the air for a big sniff to understand the Martian atmosphere. So far, this sniffing has resulted in some findings that scientists are still trying to understand. Earlier this year, the rover's tunable laser spectrometer, called SAM, which stands for Sample Analysis at Mars, detected the largest amount of methane ever measured during its mission. SAM has also found that over time, oxygen behaves in a way that can't be explained by any chemical process scientists currently understand.
SAM has had plenty of time -- about six years -- to sniff and analyze the atmospheric composition on Mars. The data revealed that at the surface, 95% of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, followed by 2.6% molecular nitrogen, 1.9% argon, 0.16% oxygen and 0.06% carbon monoxide. Like Earth, Mars goes through its seasons; over the course of a year, the air pressure changes. This happens when the carbon dioxide gas freezes in winter at the poles, causing the air pressure to lower. It rises again in the spring and summer, redistributing across Mars as the carbon dioxide evaporates. In relation to the carbon monoxide, nitrogen and argon also follow similar dips and peaks. But oxygen didn't. Surprisingly, the oxygen actually rose by a peak increase of 30% in the spring and summer before dropping back to normal in the fall.
SAM has had plenty of time -- about six years -- to sniff and analyze the atmospheric composition on Mars. The data revealed that at the surface, 95% of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide, followed by 2.6% molecular nitrogen, 1.9% argon, 0.16% oxygen and 0.06% carbon monoxide. Like Earth, Mars goes through its seasons; over the course of a year, the air pressure changes. This happens when the carbon dioxide gas freezes in winter at the poles, causing the air pressure to lower. It rises again in the spring and summer, redistributing across Mars as the carbon dioxide evaporates. In relation to the carbon monoxide, nitrogen and argon also follow similar dips and peaks. But oxygen didn't. Surprisingly, the oxygen actually rose by a peak increase of 30% in the spring and summer before dropping back to normal in the fall.
A Fart Perhaps? (Score:1)
Re:A Fart Perhaps? (Score:5, Insightful)
Due to Mar's harsh conditions, including lack of an atmosphere, lack of an active magnetosphere and the resulting impact of cosmic rays.... it is likely that any life on mars has moved underground (I was going to say subterranean, Earth centrist, eh?).
So, those farts that you speak of are likely leaking to the surface whenever the martians get tired of hotboxing it
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"If a martian was standing near the rover and farted, might that not explain the strange methane and oxygen readings?"
Of course not!
It's obviously a gigantic underground mole that breathes just once a year.
Sniff deeply everybody. (Score:4, Funny)
Photosynthesis? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Photosynthesis? (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a lot of ferrous minerals on Mars (hence the red color of large portions of the surface). Perhaps there's some sort of breakdown of oxides that might lead to spikes on measurable O2. Not saying it isn't some sort of metabolic process, but there might be other non-organic explanations as well.
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Re: Photosynthesis? (Score:3)
Interesting comment. Iron (and other metal) oxides can lose oxygen thereby converting the oxides to their respective metallic states. It's a chemical process is called reduction and is (in effect) the inverse of oxidation. However, as far as I'm aware, the reduction process requires high temperatures, much higher than those found in the Martian atmosphere.
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There are no plants or life on Mars. So no.
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prove it
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No. The OP made the extraordinary claim that it was photosynthesis, so you have to prove there is life. My proof is that we haven't seen any plants anywhere on the planet. Where is your proof?
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Your proof is not really proof, Because only a very small percentage of mars surface has even been looked at; there remains a possibility of some kind of plant or other life on the 99% of Mars' surface which has not been looked at except at a low resolution from a very long distance away.
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We believe there are no plants or life on Mars. So no.
FTFY...
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Um no. We know by now. Even NASA knows, but they want the funding to continue to see if there was life and to learn how the planet developed. There may have been life in the past, but the planet has been blasted by radiation for many millennia. Anyone who believes in life on Mars might as well believe in God or the Easter Bunny. There is zero evidence of life existing on Mars.
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oh rly?
A planet is more than just the surface, and due to lack of magnetosphere (and resulting loss of atmosphere) anything that would need to avoid cosmic rays is likely underground
That said, there are plenty of abiogenic sources for these gases, but your seeming determination that there is NO life is simply not proven
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Good point. I'm off to check. I'll let you know if I find any.
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In the past decade, satellites detected liquid water under the surface of the Martian south pole [nasa.gov]
Since then, they have detected a volcanic caldera under this spot [space.com]
This would indicate a long term source of water and heat relatively close to the planet's surface
Seems to qualify for a potential place for life to hide
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um, you don't "science" much, do you?
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Until we look how will we ever know?
Generally, for plausible hypotheses (like the existence of life under the martian soil) ya, that's how it works. You don't know until you look.
Look, like it or not, it is plausible that life exists on Mars. It's certainly not known for a fact, and there's no more reason to think that it does than it doesn't.
But it *is* plausible.
So, someone saying it *could* be photosynthesis is infinitely more correct than some dipshit who says it *is not*
You're the dipshit here, btw.
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anything that would need to avoid cosmic rays is likely underground
But not too far, or it wouldn't be responding to seasonal cycles.
Re:Photosynthesis? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Photosynthesis? (Score:4, Interesting)
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If you click through to the paper, they have some graphs of how the O2 concentration behaves, and how it correlates with other known environmental factors (not well). The O2 mix ratio seems to have a rather complex yet repeating seasonal cycle that can't be explained with something as simple as you suggest. Of course everything seasonal is ultimately driven by the sun, but the direct effects of solar radiation make a smooth curve while the O2 does something very interesting. Just go look. If you're into sci
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The list of other, more simple processes that could be occurring is very long. Radiation bombarding CO2 causing it to separate, the sensor misbehaving in some unanticipated way, some mineral based sequestering process, and a whole long list of things that geologists and chemists come up with better than you or I could imagine.
Saying it's life seems to be the longest stretch possible.
Bonfires and leaf burning (Score:3)
Viking told us what it was (Score:3, Interesting)
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Aliens?
Re: Viking told us what it was (Score:1)
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Really? If I were a planetary scientist I would be ecstatic about it. After all there is nothing new in processes that are reasonably understood, whereas something that should not be might just lead into an entirely new field of study. Even if it doesn't, at minimum it adds to what we already know, expanding our knowledge. Even if it's in error, it still contributes to future missions and studies.
Oxygen behaving strangely (Score:1)
growth season? (Score:2)
Perhaps Spring and Summer is the growth season, for some as yet unlocated flora?
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Perhaps Spring and Summer is the growth season, for some as yet unlocated flora?
Unlikely, but it's a possible explanation. IMHO it's some non-organic process happening here, but exactly what is a mystery.
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Perhaps Spring and Summer is the growth season, for some as yet unlocated flora?
Unlikely, but it's a possible explanation. IMHO it's some non-organic process happening here, but exactly what is a mystery.
Hm... I remember reading somewhere that what oxygen isn't locked up in CO2 is locked up as iron oxide in the soil. Is there perhaps some chemical process where some of the oxygen in the soil would be released during the warmer season?
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Reduction is the obvious answer to this question, which is why it was likely one of the first they tried to crunch numbers for.
They state that no chemical reaction they could think of would create a spike this large.
Doesn't mean it isn't chemical. Just means they haven't figured out what is catalyzing it yet, or how there's enough of it happened to create a measurable spike this large. Also doesn't mean they won't figure out a chemical process that's doing it. Ma
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Oxygen trapped for billions of years (Score:1)
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Presumably the ice that melts in the spring will reform in the fall. Otherwise Mars will run out of ice pretty quickly. So the ice must also somehow recollect the atmospheric oxygen when they freeze, which would be hard to do if they're spread out very evenly throughout the atmosphere.
Something to do with the perchlorates? (Score:2)
I know that Mars has perchlorates in the soil, which cause liquid brine to exist periodically. Googling around, I see that some perchlorates are used in oxygen generators. I'm not sure how the oxygen would cycle, or perhaps it's a huge store of minerals that the perchlorates react with to form O2 which gets absorbed someplaces else each season.
I'm nowhere near enough of a chemist to write the equation for a plausible reaction that could drive this. It's just an idea...
Groucho (Score:2)
The Curiosity Rover Detects Oxygen Behaving Strangely on Mars
And we're all watching oxygen behaving strangely in Washington! (bah dump bump)
Carbon Dioxide is heaver... (Score:1)
Problem solved.
Re: Carbon Dioxide is heaver... (Score:1)
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New problem: diffusion. Gases mix and don't unmix. Which is why we don't have all our CO2 stuck near the ground, displacing the oxygen we breathe.
Also if we had more Carbon Dioxide here on earth than Oxygen like there is on Mars, it would displace the oxygen we breath. But at the moment there is only 400 parts per million CO2 in the air we breath so displacing the oxygen and nitrogen would be kind of difficult.
Problem solved.