Green | January 19, 2009 | 17 comments

Is something organic brewing on Mars?

source: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=methane-on-mars-is-something

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DeliaTheArtist
"A team of researchers today announced another milestone in determining the source of methane on Mars, along with the best next steps to ascertain whether the gas is connected to life or to geologic activity on the Red Planet.

Assuming that the methane is produced by internal processes on Mars, Atreya said that the source could be "geology, in which case it's the reaction between water and rock, or it's biology, in which case the microbes are producing the methane." (Even the former explanation could be intriguing, as Mars is not thought to be very geologically active.) In either case, the discovery of individual methane plumes points to the existence of localized aquifers (water-bearing rock layers) under the surface, he said.

Atreya cautioned that the methane could also be a relic, somehow sequestered and then released, of past processes rather than a marker of activity today."

Much more at link, SCIAM articles are pretty long.
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17 comments // Is something organic brewing on Mars?

  • thorstein
    • 0
      thorstein  

    • I wouldn't be surprised if the life is further down below the surface closer to heat and underground sources of water.

      I was fascinated to find how creatures have adapted near our mid-ocean ridges and don't need photosynthesis.

      I don't suppose I will be less fascinated by life on Mars.

    • 3 years ago
  • twentytwo
  • FallenMorgan
  • SamuraiDave
    • 0
      SamuraiDave  

    • Or perhaps something more sinister is brewing...

      "No one would have believed in the last years of the [twentieth] century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the [twenty-first] century came the great disillusionment."

    • 3 years ago
  • Alanisnotcool
  • SamuraiDave
  • SamuraiDave
  • m4l1c3
  • Sam_the_Wizer
    • 0
      Sam_the_Wizer  

    • Maybe a few microbes left on all those probes we've sent out there over the years are growing and adapting. Perhaps some day soon David Bowie will finally have his answer.

    • 3 years ago
  • Argon18
    • 0
      Argon18  
    • Image

    • They just haven't been looking hard enough for the Monolith yet.

      They haven't got much time left before there is another sun made from Jupiter that will accelerate the growth of life on the other planets

    • 3 years ago
  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  

    • This video talks about the connection of water and life.

      I predicted back in 2000 that water and life were going to be discovered on Mars. Water is the key to life everywhere in the universe. Methane gas is its maker. If we can find Methane gas on planets in other solar systems, we will likely find water and life.

      I can't wait until the veil is lifted and mankind can see the truth for what it is. Life is everywhere in the universe. Earth by no mean has a monopoly on life, and knowing this to be true, would destroy all the superstitions that enslave the mind of mankind to this day.

      Yes I am talking about religions that preach creation.

    • 3 years ago
  • anikhanj
  • SamuraiDave
    • 0
      SamuraiDave  
    • jubal:

      oh, god! Can't we just enjoy some martian stuff without having someone pounding the pulpit?

      Besides the Vatican and Billy Graham have no qualms about the existence of life elsewhere in the universe so I don't know who you're preaching against.

    • 3 years ago
  • jubal
  • SamuraiDave
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