Mars methane discovery hints at presence of life

[Ivan Seeking]

I hated to let this one go without a post. There is already a post in Astronomy linking to the video.
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=2035686#post2035686

Nasa scientists have detected "plumes" of methane on Mars, possibly indicating organic activity on the Red Planet...

..."It's not proof, but it makes it worth a much closer look."

Nasa will announce the full results of the study at a briefing in Washington today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/4243321/Mars-methane-discovery-hints-at-presence-of-life.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Strange, the linked thread is no longer applicable so I unlocked this one.

 

[Mk]

The post in astronomy links to a video about Mars, but not the one we want.

Very cool Ivan, my dad was just asking me to look for the original primary sources from NASA about this, any help?

 

[Mk]

Ah, here is NASA's video on it (better than Telegraph's):
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/on_demand_video.html?param=http://anon.nasa-global.edgesuite.net/anon.nasa-global/ccvideos/GSFC_20090115a_marsmeth.asx&_id=181018&_title=Methane%20on%20Mars&_tnimage=303135_main_1_303135mainenus_marsmethvid_100.jpg#

And three more articles from NASA:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/15jan_marsmethane.htm
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/marsmethane.html
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jan/HQ_09-006_Mars_Methane.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The post in astronomy links to a video about Mars, but not the one we want.

Very cool Ivan, my dad was just asking me to look for the original primary sources from NASA about this, any help?

I don't know what happened wrt the linked thread. Maybe a funny cache glitch... It seemed to show the same video as in the news story.

I had this posted in S&D in a related discussion.
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=154990&page=35

Discovery of Methane Reveals Mars Is Not a Dead Planet WASHINGTON -- A team of NASA and university scientists has achieved the first definitive detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars. This discovery indicates the planet is either biologically or geologically active.

The team found methane in the Martian atmosphere by carefully observing the planet throughout several Mars years with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck telescope, both at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The team used spectrometers on the telescopes to spread the light into its component colors, as a prism separates white light into a rainbow. The team detected three spectral features called absorption lines that together are a definitive signature of methane.

"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 in 2003 indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas," said Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "At northern mid-summer, methane is released at a rate comparable to that of the massive hydrocarbon seep at Coal Oil Point in Santa Barbara, Calif." Mumma is lead author of a paper describing this research that will appear in Science Express on Thursday.

Methane, four atoms of hydrogen bound to a carbon atom, is the main component of natural gas on Earth. Astrobiologists are interested in these data because organisms release much of Earth's methane as they digest nutrients. However, other purely geological processes, like oxidation of iron, also release methane.

"Right now, we do not have enough information to tell whether biology or geology -- or both -- is producing the methane on Mars," Mumma said. "But it does tell us the planet is still alive, at least in a geologic sense. It is as if Mars is challenging us, saying, 'hey, find out what this means.' "

If microscopic Martian life is producing the methane, it likely resides far below the surface where it is warm enough for liquid water to exist. Liquid water is necessary for all known forms of life, as are energy sources and a supply of carbon.

"On Earth, microorganisms thrive about 1.2 to 1.9 miles beneath the Witwatersrand basin of South Africa, where natural radioactivity splits water molecules into molecular hydrogen and oxygen," Mumma said. "The organisms use the hydrogen for energy. It might be possible for similar organisms to survive for billions of years below the permafrost layer on Mars, where water is liquid, radiation supplies energy, and carbon dioxide provides carbon. Gases, like methane, accumulated in such underground zones might be released into the atmosphere if pores or fissures open during the warm seasons, connecting the deep zones to the atmosphere at crater walls or canyons."

It is possible a geologic process produced the Martian methane, either now or eons ago. On Earth, the conversion of iron oxide into the serpentine group of minerals creates methane, and on Mars this process could proceed using water, carbon dioxide and the planet's internal heat. Although there is no evidence of active volcanism on Mars today, ancient methane trapped in ice cages called clathrates might be released now.

"We observed and mapped multiple plumes of methane on Mars, one of which released about 19,000 metric tons of methane," said co-author Geronimo Villanueva of the Catholic University of America in Washington. "The plumes were emitted during the warmer seasons, spring and summer, perhaps because ice blocking cracks and fissures vaporized, allowing methane to seep into the Martian air."

According to the team, the plumes were seen over areas that show evidence of ancient ground ice or flowing water. Plumes appeared over the Martian northern hemisphere regions such as east of Arabia Terra, the Nili Fossae region, and the south-east quadrant of Syrtis Major, an ancient volcano about 745 miles across.

One method to test whether life produced this methane is by measuring isotope ratios. Isotopes of an element have slightly different chemical properties, and life prefers to use the lighter isotopes. A chemical called deuterium is a heavier version of hydrogen. Methane and water released on Mars should show distinctive ratios for isotopes of hydrogen and carbon if life was responsible for methane production. It will take future missions, like NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, to discover the origin of the Martian methane.

The research was funded by the Planetary Astronomy Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington and the Astrobiology Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The University of Hawaii manages NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility.

For images related to this finding, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mars
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jan/HQ_09-006_Mars_Methane.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/marsmethane_media.html

 

[tribdog]

Why isn't everyone more excited about this? I think this is one of the coolest stories of the decade. I hope it isn't a sign that Mars is still geologically active. If you were going to look for life on another planet wouldn't you look for methane? I suppose maybe free oxygen would be more conclusive, but methane has to be right up there.

 

[physics girl phd]

I'll be convinced when they find the cows.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I'll be convinced when they find the cows.

I already believe in the existence of cows.

 

[LowlyPion]

I suppose if you were presuming to find terra-forms, that oxygen and methane would be markers of interest. But I rather think that life is a bit rarer, and cows even more so, whereas geology is not.

Such precursors must surely have been in Earth's past history, and are for us at least the likely prerequisites for the kinds of soups and tidal pools that uncountable combinatorial reactions ultimately built upon until our own recombinatorial chemistries arose from the broth.

I guess I have to remain a little skeptical that methane venting is dramatically indicative, since there is some question in my mind about how long the atmosphere of Mars can retain the gas. And if there is no replenishment process, that begins to sound to me more like some kind of residual depletion, venting from a cooling core for instance, as opposed to active little sub-surface Martian elf farms tipping cows and making Martian cheese.

If indeed it is by product of organic action, what is fueling it? What supplies of energy and hydrogen are being depleted in the venting and how sustainable is that likely to be? Water? Certainly it's there in some quantity, but by all evidence it seems it is not nearly as abundant as some of the erosion patterns might suggest from prior epochs.

It would be definitely exciting to discover even the most primitive cells in a non Earth environment - not to mention Martian cows and cheese - but I despair about that.

 

[G01]

I already believe in the existence of cows.

I'm agnostic in regards to cows. How do we know they are not just fat horses with blotchy skin?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I'm agnostic in regards to cows. How do we know they are not just fat horses with blotchy skin?

Have you ever tried to milk a horse?

 

[david90]

You can indirectly concluded that aliens like beans

 

[dlgoff]

I'll be convinced when they find the cows.

And when they do, there will probably be a tax placed on each one for polluting.

 

[tribdog]

Have you ever tried to milk a horse?

only once.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

only once.

...a bull?

 

[DaveC426913]

So, there seem to be three possible sources: life, volcanism and rust.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but even the discovery of volcanism on Mars would be important.

However, rust is still a possibility, but it's a mundane one.

 

[FireSky86]

This is nonetheless incredible!

 

[DaveC426913]

This is nonetheless incredible!

If it's not due to rust, then yes, I agree. If it's rust, then not so much with the incredible.

 

[FireSky86]

If it's not due to rust, then yes, I agree. If it's rust, then not so much with the incredible.

I was just hyping it up...