Curiosity keeps searching for signs of life on Mars - Taipei Times 11/7/12 8:13 AM
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Curiosity keeps searching for signs of life on Mars
ReutersS, CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida
Initial analysis of the atmosphere of Mars from NASA’s rover Curiosity has shown no sign of Most Popular methane, a gas detected Listing from 2012-11-01 to 2012-11-08 previously by remote sensors, Most read Most e-mailed researchers said on Friday. 1 Tech Review: Apple’s iOS 6 Maps On Earth, more than 90 percent 2 China hampers trade talks: EU official of the methane in the atmosphere 3 Taipei’s missile ‘umbrella’ to be bolstered: results from living organisms and military its presence in the Martian 4 Calendar aims to raise pro-localization atmosphere, first detected in consciousness 2003, raised the prospect of 5 Editorial: Time Ma dropped the numbers microbial life on the planet. game
Although no methane was detected during Curiosity’s first detailed atmospheric analysis, MORE scientists working under the auspices of the US space agency plan to keep looking.
“The search goes on,” Curiosity scientist Paul Mahaffy, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told reporters on Friday.
In addition to chemically analyzing soil and rocks, Curiosity is equipped to sample and study gases in the planet’s thin atmosphere.
The rover’s onboard laboratory looked for methane in concentrations as small as 5 parts per billion. Scientists so far have no explanation as to why Curiosity has found no methane, while orbiting probes and ground-based telescopes have previously found evidence of the gas on Mars.
Apart from being produced by living organisms, methane is also generated by geological activity.
Methane would not have to be released at Curiosity’s landing site inside Gale Crater for the rover to detect it, according to atmospheric chemist Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2012/11/04/2003546880 Page 1 of 2 Curiosity keeps searching for signs of life on Mars - Taipei Times 11/7/12 8:13 AM
“If there is a source of methane elsewhere, it does not take very long for it to get distributed over the planet — about three months,” Atreya said. 免費註冊 Measurements of other atmospheric gases have proven more fruitful. Taipei Times Facebook An analysis of carbon, argon and other isotopes, which are variations of particular chemical elements, indicates that Mars, as suspected, has lost significant amounts of its atmosphere to space over time. Taipei Times CD Reviews: Jolin Tsai “The gases in the current atmosphere are a product of Mars’ entire history,” said and Muse; William Wei Curiosity scientist Laurie Leshin of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New and Someone is Waiting; York. and Sandy Lam and Gaia Full story: The goal of the two-year, US$2.5 billion Curiosity mission is to determine whether Mars, http://goo.gl/Tnvse which is cold and dry today, ever had the chemical and environmental conditions to support and preserve microbial life.
“Did Mars once have abundant flowing water and, if so, why is the climate so cold and the atmosphere so thin today as to preclude this?” Leshin asked.
“By studying today’s atmosphere, we can gain clues to how Mars’ environment has 7,973 Taipei Times changed,” she said.
Curiosity, which landed on Mars in August, is NASA’s first astrobiology mission since the 1970s-era Viking probes. Michael Rudy Will Xin Facebook This story has been viewed 904 times. 免費註冊 Ads by Google
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