Martian Methane: Carbon compound hints at life

Ref: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040410/fob3.asp
Science News - Week of April 10, 2004; Vol. 165, No. 15 , p. 228
Martian Methane: Carbon compound hints at life

Ron Cowen

Evidence that parts of ancient Mars had oceans and might have
supported some form of life in the past grabbed front-page headlines
just a few weeks ago (SN: 3/27/04, p. 195: Available to subscribers
at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040327/fob2.asp). But
detection of the simple carbon compound methane in the Martian
atmosphere by both ground-based telescopes and an orbiting
spacecraft spotlights an even more intriguing possibility: There
might be primitive life, even today, on the Red Planet.

By analyzing data collected by an earthbound telescope in 1999,
Vladimir A. Krasnopolsky of the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C., and his colleagues have measured Martian methane
at 11 parts per billion. They've posted an abstract on the Internet
and plan to announce their findings at a meeting of the European
Geosciences Union in Nice, France, later this month, Krasnopolsky
says.

Other planetary scientists announced last month that a spectrometer
aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft (SN:
2/21/04, p. 125: Available to subscribers at
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040221/note11.asp) found
methane at a concentration of about 10.5 ppb in the planet's
atmosphere. Vittorio Formisano of the Institute of Physics and
Interplanetary Space in Rome presented the findings at a press
conference last month in Paris.

The agreement of the ground-based-telescope results with the Mars
Express data is "very reassuring," says Krasnopolsky's collaborator
Toby Owen of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

Both sets of findings corroborate data that Michael J. Mumma of
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., presented last
September at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in
Monterey, Calif. In 2003, using sensitive spectrometers at two large
ground-based telescopes, Mumma's team detected methane in the
Martian atmosphere at concentrations ranging from 10 parts to 30
ppb.

Methane is an intriguing compound to find in the Martian atmosphere
because it can't survive there long. It takes sunlight only about
400 years to break down methane in the Red Planet's atmosphere. The
similar concentrations of methane detected over a 5-year period
therefore suggest that the lost material is continuously
replenished.

Krasnopolsky's team calculates that comets striking Mars couldn't
deliver enough methane to replace what's lost. It's possible that
the methane could be seeping out from underground reservoirs of
material left over from the planet's formation. Or, as on Earth, the
organic compound could be a by-product of bacteria on or beneath the
surface of the planet.

One of the locations where Mumma's team found elevated methane lies
above Meridiani Planum, the equatorial region where the NASA rover
Opportunity found signs of a past ocean. That site might still
contain underground deposits of water and, if so, "could potentially
support active life forms," Mumma notes.

Such musings are "all very hypothetical," he emphasizes. But one
test may discern whether the Martian methane has a biological
origin. On Earth, methane made by living things has a ratio of
carbon-12 to carbon-13 that's slightly elevated compared with
methane produced by nonbiological sources. If organisms on Mars were
similar to those on Earth, they, too, would produce methane with an
elevated ratio.

Members of Krasnopolsky's team have proposed that a spectrometer
sensitive enough to detect the slight difference in carbon ratio
could be part of a Mars lander laboratory planned for launch in
2009. A space-based infrared spectrometer, proposed by Mumma's team
for launch at the end of the decade, would also have the capability
to determine carbon-12-carbon-13 ratios.

Members of Krasnopolsky's team have proposed that a spectrometer
sensitive enough to detect the slight difference in carbon ratio
could be part of a Mars lander laboratory planned for launch in
2009. A space-based infrared spectrometer, proposed by Mumma's team
for launch at the end of the decade, would also have the capability
to determine carbon-12-carbon-13 ratios.

Elevated levels of C12 alert! We have to wait till the end of the decade?
Well shucks, Beagle 2 had a mass spectrometer that could have nailed
this already. Pity about that stoopid dawg.

Members of Krasnopolsky's team have proposed that a spectrometer
sensitive enough to detect the slight difference in carbon ratio
could be part of a Mars lander laboratory planned for launch in
2009. A space-based infrared spectrometer, proposed by Mumma's team
for launch at the end of the decade, would also have the capability
to determine carbon-12-carbon-13 ratios.

Elevated levels of C12 alert! We have to wait till the end of the decade?
Well shucks, Beagle 2 had a mass spectrometer that could have nailed
this already. Pity about that stoopid dawg.

Sam Wormley wrote:

Ref: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040410/fob3.asp
Science News - Week of April 10, 2004; Vol. 165, No. 15 , p. 228
Martian Methane: Carbon compound hints at life

Have the recent discoveries on Mars caused planetary scientists to take
another look at that Martian meteorite from Antarctica which has
formations that some thought might be fossilized remains?


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Sam Wormley wrote:

Ref: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040410/fob3.asp
Science News - Week of April 10, 2004; Vol. 165, No. 15 , p. 228
Martian Methane: Carbon compound hints at life

Have the recent discoveries on Mars caused planetary scientists to take
another look at that Martian meteorite from Antarctica which has
formations that some thought might be fossilized remains?


-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----

Sam Wormley wrote:

Ref: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040410/fob3.asp
Science News - Week of April 10, 2004; Vol. 165, No. 15 , p. 228
Martian Methane: Carbon compound hints at life

Ron Cowen

Evidence that parts of ancient Mars had oceans and might have
supported some form of life in the past grabbed front-page headlines
just a few weeks ago (SN: 3/27/04, p. 195: Available to subscribers
at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040327/fob2.asp). But
detection of the simple carbon compound methane in the Martian
atmosphere by both ground-based telescopes and an orbiting
spacecraft spotlights an even more intriguing possibility: There
might be primitive life, even today, on the Red Planet.

By analyzing data collected by an earthbound telescope in 1999,
Vladimir A. Krasnopolsky of the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C., and his colleagues have measured Martian methane
at 11 parts per billion. They've posted an abstract on the Internet
and plan to announce their findings at a meeting of the European
Geosciences Union in Nice, France, later this month, Krasnopolsky
says.

Other planetary scientists announced last month that a spectrometer
aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft (SN:
2/21/04, p. 125: Available to subscribers at
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040221/note11.asp) found
methane at a concentration of about 10.5 ppb in the planet's
atmosphere. Vittorio Formisano of the Institute of Physics and
Interplanetary Space in Rome presented the findings at a press
conference last month in Paris.

The agreement of the ground-based-telescope results with the Mars
Express data is "very reassuring," says Krasnopolsky's collaborator
Toby Owen of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

Both sets of findings corroborate data that Michael J. Mumma of
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., presented last
September at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in
Monterey, Calif. In 2003, using sensitive spectrometers at two large
ground-based telescopes, Mumma's team detected methane in the
Martian atmosphere at concentrations ranging from 10 parts to 30
ppb.

Methane is an intriguing compound to find in the Martian atmosphere
because it can't survive there long. It takes sunlight only about
400 years to break down methane in the Red Planet's atmosphere.

more like 100 years!

Sam Wormley wrote:

Ref: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040410/fob3.asp
Science News - Week of April 10, 2004; Vol. 165, No. 15 , p. 228
Martian Methane: Carbon compound hints at life

Ron Cowen

Evidence that parts of ancient Mars had oceans and might have
supported some form of life in the past grabbed front-page headlines
just a few weeks ago (SN: 3/27/04, p. 195: Available to subscribers
at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040327/fob2.asp). But
detection of the simple carbon compound methane in the Martian
atmosphere by both ground-based telescopes and an orbiting
spacecraft spotlights an even more intriguing possibility: There
might be primitive life, even today, on the Red Planet.

By analyzing data collected by an earthbound telescope in 1999,
Vladimir A. Krasnopolsky of the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C., and his colleagues have measured Martian methane
at 11 parts per billion. They've posted an abstract on the Internet
and plan to announce their findings at a meeting of the European
Geosciences Union in Nice, France, later this month, Krasnopolsky
says.

Other planetary scientists announced last month that a spectrometer
aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft (SN:
2/21/04, p. 125: Available to subscribers at
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040221/note11.asp) found
methane at a concentration of about 10.5 ppb in the planet's
atmosphere. Vittorio Formisano of the Institute of Physics and
Interplanetary Space in Rome presented the findings at a press
conference last month in Paris.

The agreement of the ground-based-telescope results with the Mars
Express data is "very reassuring," says Krasnopolsky's collaborator
Toby Owen of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

Both sets of findings corroborate data that Michael J. Mumma of
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., presented last
September at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in
Monterey, Calif. In 2003, using sensitive spectrometers at two large
ground-based telescopes, Mumma's team detected methane in the
Martian atmosphere at concentrations ranging from 10 parts to 30
ppb.

Methane is an intriguing compound to find in the Martian atmosphere
because it can't survive there long. It takes sunlight only about
400 years to break down methane in the Red Planet's atmosphere.

more like 100 years!

On Earth, methane made by living things has a ratio of
carbon-12 to carbon-13 that's slightly elevated compared with
methane produced by nonbiological sources. If organisms on Mars were
similar to those on Earth, they, too, would produce methane with an
elevated ratio.

I forget which it is, but bio generated methane prefers carbon-12, whereas
volcanic methane uses carbon-13, or the other way around Thats the
difference.
12 vs 13. Biological vs volcanic. The relative ratios change depending on
the source.
Either source can be subterranean as opposed to surface. But there are no
known
surface or subterranean volcanic sources on Mars - infrared studies to date

have failed to locate any active volcanic sources on Mars. The amount of
methane
now being detected and replenished would require palpable volcanic sources
which
previous detection attempts should have found if they exist. In the Martian
case
methane disapates at a very rapid rate, geologically (100-400yrs), and
would
require constant (seasonal?) replenishment to achieve the level now being
measured.
Something is generating it.

On Earth, methane made by living things has a ratio of
carbon-12 to carbon-13 that's slightly elevated compared with
methane produced by nonbiological sources. If organisms on Mars were
similar to those on Earth, they, too, would produce methane with an
elevated ratio.

I forget which it is, but bio generated methane prefers carbon-12, whereas
volcanic methane uses carbon-13, or the other way around Thats the
difference.
12 vs 13. Biological vs volcanic. The relative ratios change depending on
the source.
Either source can be subterranean as opposed to surface. But there are no
known
surface or subterranean volcanic sources on Mars - infrared studies to date

have failed to locate any active volcanic sources on Mars. The amount of
methane
now being detected and replenished would require palpable volcanic sources
which
previous detection attempts should have found if they exist. In the Martian
case
methane disapates at a very rapid rate, geologically (100-400yrs), and
would
require constant (seasonal?) replenishment to achieve the level now being
measured.
Something is generating it.