Good news on the Mars front:
Methane Producing Bacteria Found in the Desert
Evidence of methane-producing organisms can be found in inhospitable soil environments much like those found on the surface of Mars, according to experiments undertaken by scientists and students from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the University of Arkansas and published online in the journal Icarus.
The results, they said, provide ample impetus for similar "biodetection experiments" to be considered for future missions to Mars.
But wait! There's more!
Mars Express PFS spectrometer back at work
The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft is now back in operation after a malfunction, reported a few months ago.
[. . .]
PFS was the first instrument ever to make direct 'in situ' measurements of methane in the atmosphere of Mars, and provided first indications of traces of formaldehyde, both candidate ingredients for life.
5 comments:
Ya, good news to me. Didn't the MRO also have a problem a month or so ago, and has it been rectified? Haven't kept up on that.
Not only has life been found in the most inhospitable deserts, but also in million year old (I think) ice in a vocanic vent, Svalbard Island. VERY far North. I have for several years now been convinced of the actuality of present day liquid surface water on Mars, in limited times places and amounts. Even NASA now admits it. Not nearly so sure about large, permanent or semi-permanent bodies of water. Consequently, I now feel that there is assuredly microbial life also present, and conceivably macrobiotic life. Again, time will tell. However, even though I am not a gambling man, I am willing to bet $100 that I (having been convinced by others who know more and work harder than I), am correct on that.
****************************************
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/geowissenschaften/bericht-51076.html
University of Leeds 02.11.2005
Is there life on Mars?
An international team of scientists including the University of Leeds’ Liane Benning have successfully trialled techniques to search for life on Mars. Their findings - microbes deep within ice-filled volcanic tubes - reveal how to test for life on the red planet. Article continues.
***********************************
http://reporter.leeds.ac.uk/press_releases/current/mars.htm
The scientists detected living and fossilised microbiota, in the ice and on the surfaces and cracks of other volcanic rocks, using their integrated life-detection strategy successfully tested by AMASE in 2004. “Our instrument, designed by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), detected minute quantities of aromatic hydrocarbons from microorganisms and lichens present in the rocks and ice,” said Arthur Lonnie Lane of JPL who made his 2nd voyage with the AMASE team. Article continues.
More to be found on the subject, but that's the gist of it.
Mac, IMO it would be a good idea for you to have a moderated BBS on CI. Something where only the thread subject is initially listed, so that a goodly number of subjects might be on one page. Then, folk might burrow down a level to find the entire discussion. Such would eliminate topics being lost and forgotten quickly, due to rotating off a page.
If you've not the time to moderate, I volunteer. For some months I was a moderator at Anomalies.net, but left due to a personality conflict 'twixt I and the site owner. Doubt I'd have the same problem with you. Think about it.
Hi Ken,
Let me think about your idea about me moderating. First, of course, I'd need to get a proper BBS - which is probably overdue!
While biogenic methane is far from proven, since there are many abiotic generations, the list of usual suspects thins. ... "You want to resort to biogenic sources as the last possible alternative," ... Well, I guess, but still life IS an *ahem* viable option.
Concerning methane and its origins, http://www.marslife.com/ gives us
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8256
Volcanoes ruled out for Martian methane
* 10:26 04 November 2005
* NewScientist.com news service
* Jeff Hecht
"New observations of the Martian atmosphere show no trace of sulphurous fumes. The finding rules out active volcanoes as the source of the Red Planet's mysterious methane, but fails to resolve the question of where the methane comes from."...
..."New observations of the Martian atmosphere show no trace of sulphurous fumes. The finding rules out active volcanoes as the source of the Red Planet's mysterious methane, but fails to resolve the question of where the methane comes from."...
..."Earth’s volcanoes release methane, but they generate thousands of times more SO2, which has an even shorter atmospheric lifetime than methane – just two years. So finding SO2 would mean volcanic vents on Mars were actively releasing the gas, and presumably methane as well.
However, high-resolution measurements revealed no trace of Martian SO2. From that, Krasnopolsky calculated that Mars’ atmosphere could contain no more than one part per billion of the gas. This in turn means that Martian volcanoes can be releasing no more than one seven-hundredth as much SO2 as terrestrial volcanoes – and far too little methane to sustain the levels recorded in the Martian atmosphere."... Article continues, with the obligatory counter point.
Also linked is http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2005/2004GL022161.shtml
"Abstract
Recent spectroscopic detections of CH4 in the atmosphere of Mars are the first definitive observations of an organic compound on that planet. The relatively short photochemical lifetime of CH4 (∼300 years) argues for a geologically young source. We demonstrate here that low-temperature alteration of basaltic crust by carbon-bearing hydrothermal fluid can produce the required CH4 flux of 1 × 107 moles year−1, assuming conservative values for crustal permeability and oxygen fugacity as implied by Martian basaltic meteorites. The crustal thermal disturbance due to a single dike ∼1 × 1 × 10 km intruded during the past 104 years is capable of driving the alteration, if all carbon is supplied by magmatic degassing from a dike with only 50 ppm C. Atmospheric methane strongly suggests ongoing magmatism and hydrothermal alteration on Mars."
Consequently, I now feel that there is assuredly microbial life also present, and conceivably macrobiotic life.
ken -- I like your whole take on the subject. And I'm ALMOST willing to bet at this point that Martian life forms include macrobiotes, possibly even animal as well as plant life that has somehow learned to survive in very thin air, possibly by some form of metabolisis that doesn't include respiration! (Could they possibly ingest the soil and extract oxygen from that?)
BTW, what the hell is a BBS? "Bartering BullShit" or some such? (Sure sounds like it!) Anyway, sounds like a great idea, whatever it is.