Methane Keeps Showing Up on Mars. NASA Just Got Closer to Solving The Mystery

We've known about Methane on Mars for a few years now but the readings from rovers on the ground haven't been replicated by ESA's Mars Express orbiter which among other things is there to study the Martian atmosphere , it's a years old mystery that NASA now think they have an answer for.... and it's good news for Martian Methane fans.

So why the discrepancy? Webster and his colleagues went back to look at the data again, ruling out every little factor that might be contributing to the rover's detection of methane.

"So we looked at correlations with the pointing of the rover, the ground, the crushing of rocks, the wheel degradation - you name it," Webster explains.

"I cannot overstate the effort the team has put into looking at every little detail to make sure those measurements are correct, and they are."

As it turns out, the plumes of methane measured by Curiosity were not flukes. Instead, the discrepancy in measurements boils down to the Sun. The team found methane on the Martian surface can ebb and flow with the time of day, and the power-intensive instrument on Curiosity that detects methane mostly operates at night.

This is when the Martian atmosphere is more still, which means methane doesn't rise and dilute into the atmosphere like it does in the heat of the day. As a result, researchers think the gas sticks around near the surface of the planet at night, and during the day, the methane is diluted such that ESA's orbiting instrument (which needs sunlight to work) can't detect it at a distance.

To confirm their prediction, the research team collected high-precision measurements of Martian methane over the course of two days, the first time Curiosity has done so in daylight. They also took measurements during the intervening night.

As expected, the seeping methane sat near the surface of the planet at night and dissolved into the atmosphere in the day.
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I wonder if the Blueberries eat Methane.

Those little spherical that look like Dipping Dots?

found a corresponding article about the "blueberries" I forgot all about those, here's an ominous final sentence taking from the NatGeo article

www.nationalgeographic.com...

it would suggest that future scientific tools sent to Mars might need to be more robust to survive possible meteorite showers.

"If you are designing instruments to be used on Mars, those instruments need to be able to take impacts from small meteorites," Misra says.

There is another hazard along with radiation, it's beginning to look like Mars habitation will need to be underground.

Signs of the underground Martian civilization that have great cities underneath the surface of Mars, they started as small installations, but after the war the surface was hostile to life, so they expanded their cities underground and made it their home. The cities are connected by tunnels, and there are around 6 million Martians, once there where billions but there was a devastating war. They sent colonization modules towards earth and seeded life here, but the originals reminds on Mars.

Hey, Perseverence has been chugging along up there for quite a while now. Has it found any life yet? I mean, wasn't that one of its primary missions? It just seems to be duplicating the efforts of Curiosity. And honestly, the images aren't even as good.

I'm thinking if they haven't found it yet, it ain't there.

So basically, when everyone gets ready to move to Mars we can all throw away all our perfume and cologne, cuz it's gonna' smell like one great big Sh**house anyway, right?

The true meaning of...Eau de Toilet!

...or was that...Eeewwww de Toilet?

Like the day after the big Bubba Gump Shrimp, Beer and Hardboiled Egg Festival!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
So basically, when everyone gets ready to move to Mars we can all throw away all our perfume and cologne, cuz it's gonna' smell like one great big Sh**house anyway, right?

I understand the Moon smells like burned gunpowder. Mars? Maybe like rust or cinnamon. I imagine each planet has its own smell.

originally posted by: Spacespider
Signs of the underground Martian civilization that have great cities underneath the surface of Mars, they started as small installations, but after the war the surface was hostile to life, so they expanded their cities underground and made it their home. The cities are connected by tunnels, and there are around 6 million Martians, once there where billions but there was a devastating war. They sent colonization modules towards earth and seeded life here, but the originals reminds on Mars.

I thought it was the moon that was hollow?

So we are Martians... an interesting theory got any sources.I would like to read them even if it's likely science fiction

a reply to: Blue Shift

Okay, well just tell me when they find the planet which smells like Hoppe's No. 9, cuz that's the planet I wanna' go live on!

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: Spacespider
Signs of the underground Martian civilization that have great cities underneath the surface of Mars, they started as small installations, but after the war the surface was hostile to life, so they expanded their cities underground and made it their home. The cities are connected by tunnels, and there are around 6 million Martians, once there where billions but there was a devastating war. They sent colonization modules towards earth and seeded life here, but the originals reminds on Mars.

I thought it was the moon that was hollow?

So we are Martians... an interesting theory got any sources.I would like to read them even if it's likely science fiction

The Panspermia Theory on steroids'.

Mars sure has a lot of gas, I think it must be a vegan.

a reply to: gortex

Swamp gas. Or Batman.

a reply to: gortex



Martian farts .............

A team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology have been looking at Curiosity's methane detection data and now think they've found a source for the methane emitions.

To calculate the unknown methane source, researchers at the California Institute of Technology modeled the methane gas particles by splitting them into discrete packets. Taking into account the wind speed and direction at the time of their detection, the team traced their parcels of methane back through time to their possible points of emission.

By doing this for all of the different detection spikes, they were able to triangulate regions where the methane source is most likely located - with one being just a few dozen miles away from the rover.

"[The findings] point to an active emission region to the west and the southwest of the Curiosity rover on the northwestern crater floor," the researchers wrote in their paper. "This may invoke a coincidence that we selected a landing site for Curiosity that is located next to an active methane emission site."

This prospect is thrilling for scientists, as almost all of the methane in Earth's atmosphere has biological origins, according to the researchers, so that a signature on Mars could be a key signpost for finding life on the ostensibly desolate planet.
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