Erstellt am: 19. 12. 2014 - 10:45 Uhr
Today's Webtip: Life on Mars?
Did you know that Mars burped?
Apparently there was a spike in the atmospheric methane levels at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014. That's interesting because around these parts most methane is (or was) produced by the process of life. It's not the only way, but it is a big one.
So that spike in levels made the Curiosity crew, well, curious.
Of course, I guess that's their job. But a couple of days ago they released some information about the results of another experiment. Curiosity drilled into the rocks of what appears to have been a lake bed in order to determine the age of the water trapped in them. The result not only gave scientists an idea of when the lakebed was formed but also when Mars started losing its surface water. And to top it all off, they identified what appear to be organic compounds. Those basic building blocks that are needed for life to exist.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SAM-GSFC/Univ. of Michigan
So we have water, organic compounds and methane....
But don't rely on my shaky summary, go check out the news and Mars Daily. Because the red planet has its very own tabloid... marsdaily.com.
Or go straight to jpl.nasa.gov.