Mars rover has detected methane that could mean life on the Red Planet

boing
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Probably just remnants of a spice blow from a pre-spice mass. Try to move without rhythm.

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So (I love that song, for why-ever it is one of my very favorites), I also want to ask; is it the same song as Space Oddity?

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Thanks for the reminder, I’ve not listened to this in a while.

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Mystery solved: Until now nobody knew the fate of the cow that jumped over the moon.

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Not necessarily – life on Earth uses carbon in such a way that some of the products of metabolism (e.g. CO2) have a specific carbon isotopic ratio. It’s one of the ways we know for a fact that the excess of carbon in our atmosphere is man-made – the isotopic signature clinches it. CH4 resulting from space-bug metabolism could also differ in its isotopic signature from that produced by geology, and with the right instruments we could measure it. The NYT story isn’t clear on whether SAM (SAM | Instruments – NASA Mars Exploration) is doing this in this case.

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Whichever rover sensed it, dispensed it, as they say.

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TMI, dude. TMI.

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Life On Mars?

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And here we are today, where I still see people with horse and buggies, but I have not seen a manned moon landing.

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Liked, with a tear in my eye.

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Thanks! Makes sense.

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Got it! Ah, Douglas Adams.

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Apes actually. But yeah not bad!

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I see how isotopic profiling can be used to show that excess CO2 is life-made, but I don’t follow how it proves that it’s man-made?

Disclaimers:

  1. I’m not trying to use this as a wedge to disprove climate science. Climate change is real, and we’re responsible for the change and acceleration of change.
  2. I understand we’re well off track here. I find it interesting :smiley:
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You likely know this stuff as it’s a favorite, but I still can’t hear “My Way” in this:

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No Total Recall?

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I should probably have said man-released rather than man-made. Plants tend to prefer to take up lighter isotopes of carbon, so their ratio is skewed lighter compared to that of inorganic sources. Since fossil fuels are primarily the remains of ancient plants, the CO2 that results from the burning reflects this same ratio. The upshot is that the overall atmospheric carbon isotopic ratios are lighter than what we would expect if the source was geological. Here’s a better explanation than I’m able to give: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/how-do-we-know-that-recent-cosub2sub-increases-are-due-to-human-activities-updated/

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Good explanation. Thanks.

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“However, geothermal reactions devoid of biology can also generate methane.”

An example of burying a cumbersome detail in an article that only existed due to the burying of the cumbersome detail.

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