Curiosity will methane and organic molecules on Mars – Parool.nl

17-12-14 00:14 pm – Source: AP, all about astronomy

Mars Rover Curiosity. © epa

The US Mars rover Curiosity has short peaks detected in the methane content of the Martian atmosphere. The discovery suggests that there are occasionally released very locally methane on Mars. That would basically have a biological origin, the website reports allesoversterrenkunde.nl

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It was already discovered by telescopes on Earth that in the Martian atmosphere sometimes prevent local methane concentrations. Methane, or natural gas on Earth comes from animal and vegetable life. The presence of methane on Mars therefore stimulates the imagination of scientists.

However, while the methane gas could have a biological origin, non-biological explanations are also possible, and perhaps more likely. The gas would also arise for example from the interior of Mars, may originate from a comet or even completely different origin may have

. SAM instrument

The SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) measuring instrument with which the Curiosity has also organic, or carbon-containing, compounds found in soil samples from a rock formation. It is the first time that certain organic molecules have been detected in soil material from Mars. However, even this discovery does not need to indicate the presence of life. Possibly, the organic molecules are actually from the space.

Studies on the content of heavy hydrogen, the deuterium content, in water molecules in the hydrated rock in a crater on the red planet has further shown that a large part of the original water on Mars has disappeared before the rock was formed about 4 billion years ago, but that Mars even after the formation of the rock much water is lost.

The new results presented today at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco and will be published this week in the journal Science. (GS)