Carbon isotope signature detected in Curiosity data suggests possible ancient life, or not
The uncertainty of science: In reviewing data from Curiosity, scientists have detected a faint enrichment on ridge tops in Gale Crater of the carbon isotope carbon-12, normally associated with life on Earth because it is easier for life to process than the heavier carbon-13 isotope.
In order to explain this enrichment, the scientists have concocted several complicated explanations, all of which seem unlikely because of their complexity. The explanations that include life require a series several precise steps to get the enrichment limited to only high ridges. Another that doesn’t involve life requires the solar system to pass through an interstellar cloud.
One proposed explanation is simpler however, and does not require ancient microbes or interstellar clouds.
More prosaically, a few studies suggest UV rays can generate the signal without help from biology at all. UV can react with carbon dioxide—which makes up 96% of the martian atmosphere—to produce carbon monoxide that is enriched in carbon-12. Yuichiro Ueno, a planetary scientist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, says he has recently confirmed the process can occur in unpublished lab results. “The reported carbon isotope ratios are exactly what I have expected,” he says.
Though this explanation must explain why they have seen the enrichment only at high points, it is straight forward and fits all the present data we presently have of Mars
All in all, the data is tantalizing but hardly a indicator that Mars once had life. There is too much uncertainty. We do not yet know enough about Mars’ geological and climate history to come to any consensus on an explanation.
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: In reviewing data from Curiosity, scientists have detected a faint enrichment on ridge tops in Gale Crater of the carbon isotope carbon-12, normally associated with life on Earth because it is easier for life to process than the heavier carbon-13 isotope.
In order to explain this enrichment, the scientists have concocted several complicated explanations, all of which seem unlikely because of their complexity. The explanations that include life require a series several precise steps to get the enrichment limited to only high ridges. Another that doesn’t involve life requires the solar system to pass through an interstellar cloud.
One proposed explanation is simpler however, and does not require ancient microbes or interstellar clouds.
More prosaically, a few studies suggest UV rays can generate the signal without help from biology at all. UV can react with carbon dioxide—which makes up 96% of the martian atmosphere—to produce carbon monoxide that is enriched in carbon-12. Yuichiro Ueno, a planetary scientist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, says he has recently confirmed the process can occur in unpublished lab results. “The reported carbon isotope ratios are exactly what I have expected,” he says.
Though this explanation must explain why they have seen the enrichment only at high points, it is straight forward and fits all the present data we presently have of Mars
All in all, the data is tantalizing but hardly a indicator that Mars once had life. There is too much uncertainty. We do not yet know enough about Mars’ geological and climate history to come to any consensus on an explanation.
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 Z-man wrote;
“One proposed explanation is simpler however, and does not require ancient microbes or interstellar clouds”
Surprise surprise, a planet with an atmosphere of carbon dioxide has carbon in the soil.
Carbon 12 more reactive than carbon 13… But no mention of carbon 14. Or that the surface of the planet being covered with meteorites with a high content of carbon material.
Radiation stripping atoms from carbon dioxide to make carbon monoxide is a sure bet… just as the Martian dust is being ionized and given a static charge allowing it to react in strange ways with whatever substance it comes in contact with.
Personally, I’m in the camp of the intergalactic space cloud. A supernova remnant engulfing our solar system, causing ice ages, and covering the outer moons, like Europa, with ice. (Think of the flood of “Noah’s ark” and replace the liquid water with frozen water… there is abundant evidence for the world being covered in water “that is frozen”, when hydrogen rich elements entered our atmosphere, collapsing it, and blocking the sunlight while adding a documented 400 feet to the ocean levels)
I look forward to the deep ice core samples on Europa, and the Martian ice caps to verify the preserved isotopes of such events.
From a link in the article;
“4. Conclusions
[17] Here, we demonstrated that an encounter of Earth with an average density GMC (330–103 H atoms/cm3), would produce a significant climate impact causing moderate (ice-line at 50–60° latitude) glaciations. At least 2 times in the last 2 Gyr of the Earth’s history, the solar system passed through GMCs with densities >2.2 × 103 atoms/cm3. Such encounters would result in more than −9.3 W/m2 change of the solar radiation at the tropopause level, which would last for as long as 200,000 years. Events of this magnitude would most likely result in snowball glaciations.”