No farts detected on Mars, yet

[n2doc]

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected no methane in its first analyses of the Martian atmosphere — news that will doubtless disappoint those who hope to find life on the Red Planet.

Living organisms produce more than 90 percent of the methane found in Earth's atmosphere, so scientists are keen to see if Curiosity picks up any of the gas in Mars' air. But the 1-ton rover has come up empty in the first atmospheric measurements taken with its Sample Analysis at Mars instrument, or SAM, researchers announced today (Nov. 2).

"The bottom line is that we have no detection of methane so far," Chris Webster, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters today.

"But we're going to keep looking in the months ahead since Mars, as we all know, may yet hold surprises for us," added Webster, who is instrument lead for SAM's Tunable Laser Spectrometer.




more

http://www.space.com/18333-mars-rover-curiosity-methane-measurements.html

[shenmue]

1. So, who is going to be the great leader?

Who will do the experiment? Who??

[Silent3]

2. The Mars Global Surveyor, however, has detected methane, seasonally variable amounts

http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1009/21mars/

Perhaps Curiosity isn't in quite the right place to detect this methane, or it's not the right time of the Martian year to detect it.

[antiquie]

3. Would degraded methane

(CO2?) be detected and identified?

[HopeHoops]

4. Geeze. I'm sure I left one there the night I got stoned for a month in the 70's.