Why Do Methane Levels on Mars Change With The Seasons?

Originally posted by nv4711
To my knowledge, organic matter hasn't turned up yet on Mars. However, in his last heroic act and the reason for his untimely death, Marsrover "Spirit" got "stuck" in hmm.. I guess I could call it "wet sand"... when the rover ran down that fateful slope, it's wheels dug up wet, or at least humid or moist sand. It got stuck and that was it for him.

Well I call it mud



What I like is the deep layers of salts that the little critter dug up... kinda like the dry lake beds out here in Nevada

Unfortunately, the abstract of the study does not give a reason as to why seasonal changes increase

I will get the full copy in a few days. Its been uploaded but not available from my source yet But the authors have a ton of papers on methane

So whats up with these science dudes charging for papers If we do that we get called charlatans for wanting to make money on info

Nice link, NV.

That paper is an extremely complex way of saying "that lake smells like farts in the fall". Weclome to post-doctorate papers, they're quite the read...

In essense, reading the abstract alone, it mentions how the supersaturation of methane (i.e. the point at which dissolved methane in water turns into a gas, hence offgassing) is influenced by the "sweet spot" in temperature ranges that the bacteria producing the methane prefer.

There are a number of similarities between the fundamentals of this paper and what theyre observing on Mars. We wont know for sure until August 2012 when the next probe lands, it'll have a slew of gadgets relating to methane measurements.

I remember the pictures Zargon posted quite well. At my peak interest, I used to go on NASA's website daily and look at the raw images that were being uploaded by both rovers. The fact that the super fine silt/sand is sticking to the wheels is grounds for the presence of liquid water immediately (1-2'' bgs) below the surface. That is backed up by the presence of frost that was appearing in the rover tracks and depressions it made with the soil scoop.

There's simply too much methane being produced here, IMO, to be coming from geologic processes or offgassing of some archaic hydrocrabons. This planet has been barren for millions and millions of years. More than enough time to reach equilibrium. I believe we may have the "gassing gun" here folks.

I am making a prediction, that soon we will discover that anywhere there is water and rock we will find some form of biology. In asteroids, comets, and every planet/moon in our solar system and beyond. You heard it first here folks.

Because there's life on it!

reply to post by dtrock78


Probably correct, bacteria reacting to surface temperature. Some bacteria on earth produce much more chemicals when hot or cold. Depends on the bacteria but you get the idea.

Originally posted by nv4711
To my knowledge, organic matter hasn't turned up yet on Mars. However, in his last heroic act and the reason for his untimely death, Marsrover "Spirit" got "stuck" in hmm.. I guess I could call it "wet sand"... when the rover ran down that fateful slope, it's wheels dug up wet, or at least humid or moist sand. It got stuck and that was it for him.

Originally posted by zorgon
Well I call it mud

Haha.. MUD...that's the word I was looking for..oh man...sometimes...."wet sand"...geesus

Giorgio's hit the nail on the head , which makes me even more curious as to why Curiosity rover wasn't designed to search for life , do NASA already know and giving Curiosity rover a test kit would mean them having to go public ?

Surely not

Originally posted by gortex
do NASA already know and giving Curiosity rover a test kit would mean them having to go public ?
Surely not

But of course NASA knows...

Its just that YOU the People... don't have a NEED to Know

HAHAHA....great cartoon!

In terms of NASA, internally they are constantly at odds with each other. PhDs have huge egos, especially the published, quasi-known ones. I think one of the lessons theyve learned through the Viking Lander, and with the "Martian Meteorite" to a lesser extent, is that they have to build a rock solid case for "life", since the scientific community loves jumping in on the pile up, which is nothing new.

Question I've always wondered is, how would the world react to news of finding life on Mars, even if it's only a matter of bacterial life? I think there would be some profound events taking place.