In the Martian spring and summer, the red planet’s oxygen levels spike an extra 400 parts per million, or 30 percent above what researchers expected to see based on the behavior of other gases in the planet’s atmosphere. The oxygen spike seems to partially correlate to another gassy mystery: a seasonal ebb and flow of atmospheric methane on Mars. [...]
Though it’s tempting to think of photosynthesis when hearing about oxygen in a planet’s atmosphere, non-living processes are known to make oxygen on Mars, and these findings are not necessarily evidence of life. Instead, the results highlight gaps in our understanding of the red planet’s surface chemistry—holes that must be filled if we are to hunt for direct evidence of past or present Martians.[...]
Future missions might be able to help, especially if they can take more atmospheric measurements. Because of the many science demands on Curiosity, Trainer’s team obtained only 19 data points across the Martian seasons. While this gives them a sense of the long-term pattern, they can’t see any shorter-term changes. What would researchers find if they could take daily, or even hourly, oxygen and methane readings from Mars?
No comments:
Post a Comment