Something is recycling the methane on Mars
Research results posted today [pdf] at the European Planetary Science Congress show that the methane in Mars’s atmosphere is seasonally variable and far more short-lived than predicted, disappearing in less than a year. Some process, therefore, must be both using it and replenishing it. On Earth, that’s almost always done by some form of life process. Key quote by one of the scientists, from the press release:
“Only small amounts of methane are present in the martian atmosphere, coming from very localised sources. We’ve looked at changes in concentrations of the gas and found that there are seasonal and also annual variations. The source of the methane could be geological activity or it could be biological we can’t tell at this point.”
The image below shows the three regions (in yellow) where the methane is concentrated.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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