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Nasa mars rover first year hunting1/17/2024 ![]() If this was the case and there were microbes on the Martian surface, they would have consumed this methane. While Curiosity has previously detected methane on Mars, researchers can only guess if there were once large plumes of methane being released from beneath the surface of Mars. If this kind of depleted carbon measurement was made on Earth, it would show that microbes were consuming biologically produced methane. The particle-heavy cloud could trigger cooling events on rocky planets.Ĭuriosity rover detects highest levels of methane on Mars The first scenario involves our entire solar system passing through a galactic dust cloud, something that occurs every 100 million years, according to House. “All three of these scenarios are unconventional, unlike processes common on Earth,” according to the researchers. The origin of the carbon is likely due to cosmic dust, ultraviolet degradation of carbon dioxide, or the ultraviolet degradation of biologically produced methane. ![]() The varied measurements of these carbon atoms could suggest three very different things about ancient Mars. In lakes on Earth, microbes like to grow in big colonies that essentially form mats just under the surface of the water. “Those samples were caused by biological activity when methane was consumed by ancient microbial mats, but we can’t necessarily say that on Mars because it’s a planet that may have formed out of different materials and processes than Earth.” House, lead study author and professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, in a statement. “The samples extremely depleted in carbon 13 are a little like samples from Australia taken from sediment that was 2.7 billion years old,” said Christopher H. Carbon has two stable isotopes, measured as either carbon 12 or carbon 13. Some of the samples were depleted in carbon while others were enriched. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NASAĬuriosity rover searches for salt on Mars NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used two cameras to create this selfie in front of Mont Mercou, a rock outcrop that stands 20 feet (6 meters) tall. The crater also includes layers of exposed ancient rock. The large cavity likely once held a lake, and now it includes a mountain called Mount Sharp. Gale, was probably formed by a meteor impact between 3.5 billion and 3.8 billion years ago. The 96-mile (154.5-kilometer) crater, named for Australian astronomer Walter F. Learning more about the origin of this newly detected Martian carbon could also reveal the process of carbon cycling on Mars.Ī study detailing these findings published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Ĭuriosity landed in Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012. When these atoms are measured inside another substance, like Martian sediment, they can shed light on a planet’s carbon cycle, no matter when it occurred. So they could be used to help researchers determine if life existed on ancient Mars. That’s why carbon atoms – with their cycle of recycling – are tracers of biological activity on Earth. Most of our carbon is in rocks and sediment and the rest is in the global ocean, atmosphere and organisms, according to NOAA, or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. On our home planet, carbon atoms go through a cycle as they travel from the atmosphere to the ground and back to the atmosphere. ![]() NASA/Caltech-JPL/MSSSĬarbon is the foundation for all of life on Earth, and the carbon cycle is the natural process of recycling carbon atoms. This is a selfie taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover at the "Rock Hall" drill site.
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