Methane in Martian rocks
The uncertainty of science: Scientists have measured significant quantities of methane released from six meteorites believed to have originally come from Mars.
This result could provide a non-biological source for the methane detected by Curiosity in Gale Crater.
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.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"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
The uncertainty of science: Scientists have measured significant quantities of methane released from six meteorites believed to have originally come from Mars.
This result could provide a non-biological source for the methane detected by Curiosity in Gale Crater.
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.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"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
I don’t know why you’re leading this piece with the “uncertainty of science” line… It is well known among geologists that there are non-biologic modes for the formation of methane. Serpentinization of olivine is a well-known process that produces methane.
My reference to uncertainty has to do with the cause of the methane on Mars. Up until now, every report that I have read about the methane detected on Mars, which appears to fluctuate depending on season as well as time of day, has said that though they don’t know what causes it, biology is the best explanation. No report ever mentioned that methane could be produced from non-biological sources.
Not being a geologist, I was, until today, unaware of these non-biological sources. Today’s report to me signaled a greater uncertainty about the cause of methane on Mars.
Of course, scientists probably knew all this beforehand and never mentioned it, a fact that I find very annoying. They thus created the impression that life was the most likely cause of the methane.
Life is the cause of Congress granting a larger budget to find out. Rocks being the source of methane inspires no one to open their pocketbooks.
The largest source of Hydrolyzed carbon (methane) is our sun. You can see the blue in the aurora borealis two days after a solar flare blast in our direction. ( Green for ammonia, red for boron, etc.)
One flare can add millions of tons into our atmosphere to burn brilliantly at night as it converts to carbon dioxide and water which causes our oceans to rise between five and 8 inches per century.
Mars is too warm for methane to freeze to its surface. Not so for the outer planets. We can see the surface of the moon’s covered in ice of methane and ammonia.
I propose a hypothesis that periodically our system passes through clouds of interstellar gases. These gases would not only cause the Ice Age on earth as the atmosphere is thined down but it would also block the sunlight that keeps Mars warm and the gases would freeze to its surface like Europa. After we pass through the cloud, it would take centuries to burn off the frozen gases. all that is left, and is rapidly decreasing in size, is the Martian polar ice cap.
I have to admit, life on Mars is much more romantic and fills the mind with fantasies.