Scientists think methane detections by Curiosity come from the salts in the local soil
According to experiments conducted on Earth, some scientists believe the unexpected puffs of methane detected by Curiosity periodically come from the salts in the local soil.
Led by Alexander Pavlov, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the researchers suggest the gas also can erupt in puffs when seals crack under the pressure of, say, a rover the size of a small SUV driving over it. The team’s hypothesis may help explain why methane is detected only in Gale Crater, Pavlov said, given that’s it’s one of two places on Mars where a robot is roving and drilling the surface. (The other is Jezero Crater, where NASA’s Perseverance rover is working, though that rover doesn’t have a methane-detecting instrument.)
The theory, based on those experiments, is complicated and unconfirmed, but if so it suggests that much of the soil of Mars, its regolith, will be somewhat toxic, requiring some processing to make it possible for plants to grow in it. This is not a new discovery, but confirms past data that suggested that perchlorate — a mild acid — is found everywhere on Mars.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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According to experiments conducted on Earth, some scientists believe the unexpected puffs of methane detected by Curiosity periodically come from the salts in the local soil.
Led by Alexander Pavlov, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the researchers suggest the gas also can erupt in puffs when seals crack under the pressure of, say, a rover the size of a small SUV driving over it. The team’s hypothesis may help explain why methane is detected only in Gale Crater, Pavlov said, given that’s it’s one of two places on Mars where a robot is roving and drilling the surface. (The other is Jezero Crater, where NASA’s Perseverance rover is working, though that rover doesn’t have a methane-detecting instrument.)
The theory, based on those experiments, is complicated and unconfirmed, but if so it suggests that much of the soil of Mars, its regolith, will be somewhat toxic, requiring some processing to make it possible for plants to grow in it. This is not a new discovery, but confirms past data that suggested that perchlorate — a mild acid — is found everywhere on Mars.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
No buried cows ?
Sorry but I had chili today and am presently making up for about a thousand missing buffalo.
You guys are funny, I’m not as creative but I do enjoy a sense of humor.
There is a big push to remove all animals from our diet, using methane as an excuse. Animals eat the plants that eat the carbon out of the air… If the animals didn’t exist, the plants would just die and rot on the ground and become methane / CO2 anyway…. just as the leaves from the trees fall on the ground every year and are wasted causing CO2 levels to spike up 20 to 30 ppm. Part of the carbon cycle that all life depends upon.
I had to look up how much martian methane they are detecting. It is measured in “parts per billion”. The increase on the NASA website shows 25 ppb were the old measurement was around 4 ppb… Almost measured in parts per trillion.
That’s not very much, it’s measures higher in the solar wind. (my vote for the most likely source of solar system methane, and the creation of most of the water on earth from the aurora borealis burning and oxidizing in the upper atmosphere making new water constantly… Proof of this is Antarctica, on average receives a foot of new ice every year in the second most driest climate on earth)
Compared to earth’s methane average at 1.8 ppm (The equivalent of $1.80 out of 1 million dollars! That’s almost 0 methane on earth even though it’s being created constantly by anaerobic bacteria for over a billion years) or Saturns titan having 5% of its atmosphere in methane. (50,000 ppm)
Remember your math when talking with someone about methane and global warming. Whether methane can act as a blanket to hold in heat is irrelevant when the blanket is nonexistent.
I once calculated the surface area of an average human body, to divide the percentage of insulating clothing Global warming gas would represent in carbon dioxide or methane. Carbon dioxide surface area was the equivalent of a G string… Methane equivalent was a thin string hanging around the neck. Both are statistically unimportant and would hold relatively minimal heat in the body.
With 40 years satellite observation and measurements along with 50 weather balloons twice a day in America alone… A global warming event where the upper atmosphere is warmer than the ground has never been measured, the greenhouse theory has been disproven and does not exist. It is merely a political tool to enslave the citizens of the planet. Just as the flat earth theory once did.
Water vapor makes a considerable difference but not considered in any global warming equations although it represents with pictures from space about 30% of the atmosphere (300,000 ppm) not including over 70% of the surface oceans of the planet…. With ice caps and all.
Why?
In every experiment conducted, clouds can act as a blanket slowing down heat loss but is not a source or “heat Producer” but rather is a cooling medium. It’s more likely to leech heat off the surface just as sweat on your body cools your body. But then whoever heard of anyone praying for a cloud to pass in front of the sun to make the temperature go up? It’s ridiculous. Just as blowing on your coffee with carbon dioxide from your mouth will heat the coffee. (maybe if you have pure CO2 it will heat your coffee?… Try a cube of dry ice to see if that will work)
That reminds me of another calculation I did to determine how “hot” a carbon dioxide molecule would need to be to warm the air around it? Carbon dioxide is 420 ppm? (I haven’t looked lately) at 400 ppm it makes up one (1) molecule out of every 2,500 air molecules. To warm the air around it just one (1) degree lasting a pico second, the CO2 molecule would need to be 2500°… obviously impossible, that’s hot enough for every leaf eating carbon dioxide out of the air to spontaneously burn. And then you must consider that the molecule is “spherical” meaning only 1/6 of the surface area as pointed towards the ground where the sides and the top are pointed elsewhere radiating it’s heat in a different direction other then the ground. That means whatever estimations of CO2 heat hitting the ground have to be reduced by 1/6 of its original conclusions.
With no backing from science, global warming Ministry is a religion at best… A death cult at worst. have you calculated your carbon footprint? Do you have enough money to offset your carbon intake tax? A zero carbon economy means no hydrocarbons, and no carbohydrates. No fuel source to keep you warm in the winter, no food to keep you alive. A death cult indeed.