Astronomy News

[Ophiolite]

I think the topic title is mispelled. It should be called Astrology News.

All of the satellite telemetric data can be easily coming from a super computer. The $cientists that read the telemetric data think it's coming from a satellite.

To be sung to the melody of the chorus of "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo"

As I troll along this fine forum,
With an independent air,
I can hear the plebs declare,
He isn't playing fair.
You can hear them groan and start to moan,
You can see them cavil at the tone
Of the man who trolls the threads at Christian Forum.

 

[Halbhh]

To be sung to the melody of the chorus of "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo"

As I troll along this fine forum,
With an independent air,
I can hear the plebs declare,
He isn't playing fair.
You can hear them groan and start to moan,
You can see them cavil at the tone
Of the man who trolls the threads at Christian Forum.

heh heh. Hey, did you see my quick attempt to estimate the order of magnitude of a possible distance of our solar system from it's origination cluster (as if the cluster were not dispersed) -- post #51 above? Basically, I think we got little chance of finding members of that cluster (among something on the order of 1 billion stars) though I still think it's fun to give it a try anyway.

 

[Ophiolite]

heh heh. Hey, did you see my quick attempt to estimate the order of magnitude of a possible distance of our solar system from it's origination cluster (as if the cluster were not dispersed) -- post #51 above? Basically, I think we got little chance of finding members of that cluster (among something on the order of 1 billion stars) though I still think it's fun to give it a try anyway.

Yes. I also got your pm. Apologies for not replying.
I think your conclusions are correct for the present, but who knows what may be possible with the technology of the next decade, century and millenium.

 

[Halbhh]

Yes. I also got your pm. Apologies for not replying.
I think your conclusions are correct for the present, but who knows what may be possible with the technology of the next decade, century and millenium.

Yeah. And probably a typical separation more on the order of 10,000 or more light years seems likely since the peculiar motion of the sun is on the order of 10 km/sec:

The peculiar motion of the Sun with respect to the LSR is: (U, V, W) = (11.1, 12.24, 7.25) km/s,
Stellar kinematics - Wikipedia

So that would mean about another order of magnitude of the volume in which members can be mostly inside than I was writing in #51 when I found the number 600m stars, so more like well over a billion. Since we are indeed though having automatic surveys of the sky telescopes hooked up to computers analysing the output, that will be possible in time if there is indeed a distinct signature involved like an very certain combination of 1 or more heavy elements that could do the trick to distinguish from other birth clusters. Would be pretty cool though to find a true sister star to the sun.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

All of the satellite telemetric data can be easily coming from a super computer. The $cientists that read the telemetric data think it's coming from a satellite.

Pretty unlikely - the scientists that analyse the satellite data are the people who built the satellite and launched it. They're generally the only people who know exactly what that data should look like.

If you're suggesting every project, from school cubesat groups to major commercial corporations, are duped by a conspiracy of all the satellite launching companies around the world, or that all of them together are part of a vast conspiracy, it seems far more plausible that you're mistaken or deluded.

 

[Halbhh]

Don't think I've posted this before, but a new study often adds details even if I did post on stellar radiation effects before--

https://phys.org/news/2018-04-x-rays-sterilise-alien-planets-habitable.html#nRlv

 

[Shadow]

Astronomers have spotted a carbon-rich asteroid in the icy region beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt — the first such asteroid ever found exiled from the inner solar system.

This asteroid, known as 2004 EW95, likely formed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter but was soon hurled out into the Kuiper Belt, according to a statement released today (May 9) by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). This ancient, exiled rock from the solar system's primordial days provides unprecedented evidence of what that early time was really like, researchers said in the statement.

The early solar system was far more chaotic than it is today. Theoretical models predict that, during this time, objects were flung from the inner solar system to far-off distant orbits, according to the statement. These theories also dictate that the Kuiper Belt should contain objects like carbon-rich, or C-type, asteroids.

Full Details Here: Ancient, Exiled Asteroid Discovered Beyond Neptune

 

[Shadow]

A powerful X-ray pulsar is whipping around its stellar partner at a record-breaking speed.

According to new data from the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) system, which was installed aboard the International Space Station last June, these two stars revolve around each other once every 38 minutes — the fastest orbit ever observed in a pulsar binary system like this.

Of the two stars, one is an X-ray pulsar, which is a superdense neutron star that shoots out X-rays as it spins, researchers said in a new study describing the finding. Pulsars form when massive stars explode in a supernova blast, leaving behind a whirling stellar core. This particular pulsar is known as an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar (AMXP).

The pulsar, called IGR J17062-6143 (J17062 for short), is closer to its partner star than Earth is to the moon. Because of how close the two are, and the brutal speeds at which they're traveling, "It's not possible for a hydrogen-rich star, like our sun, to be the pulsar's companion. You can't fit a star like that into an orbit so small," lead study author Tod Strohmayer, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. This led the team to conclude that the second star is likely a hydrogen-poor white dwarf — white dwarf stars are small, dense stars, often the size of Earth, that are formed when low-mass stars go through gravitational collapse.

Full Details Here: This Newfound X-Ray Pulsar Is Orbiting Its Partner at Record Speed

 

[Halbhh]

Yah, that's just plain fun to imagine!

And here's some help to visualize I was just seeing yesterday (with some but not all interesting effects shown):

From this overview in Phys.org: https://phys.org/news/2018-05-nicer-mission-x-ray-pulsar-record-fast.html

 

[Shadow]

A huge asteroid, thought lost until now, has been found heading back to Earth for a close flyby.

The rock – known as 2010 WC9 – will skip past Earth at a distance half as close as the Moon. It is not only the closest flyby of this rock for 300 years, but one of the closest ever for an asteroid of this size.

Asteroid 2010 WC9, as its name suggests, was first spotted in 2010. But scientists could only see it for about a month until it became too faint to see, and they were unable to get enough precise data to understand when it would return.

That was until last week, when the rock was seen again – heading back towards Earth. Initially, scientists were not sure whether the rock could pose a danger, but it has been removed from the list of possible impact risks and shouldn't hit the Earth for at least another 100 years.

On the night of 15 May, it will complete its closest flyby: passing by at a distance of 126,419 miles. That should be bright enough to be seen with a small telescope, though it will not be visible to the eye.

The rock itself is thought to be relatively small, though its size can only be estimated by using its brightness and distance. It is thought to be about 60-130 meters – larger than the famous Chelyabinsk meteor that fell to Earth and caused hundreds of people to seek medical attention.

Original Source Here: Huge, 'lost' asteroid spotting flying back towards Earth

source : Near-Earth Asteroid 2010 WC9 very close encounter: an image (11 May 2018) - The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0

More Info:
2010 WC9 - Wikipedia
Jumbo Jet-Size Asteroid 2010 WC9 Buzzes Earth Soon: See It Live Online Tonight

2010 WC9: Nasa Small body database:
JPL Small-Body Database Browser

 

[Shadow]

Researchers have spotted the fastest-growing black hole ever found — and have seen the (thankfully) distant devourer consume a mass equivalent to Earth's sun every two days.

Researchers used newly released data from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite to confirm that the brightly shining object is a black hole, which appears to have been the mass of about 20 billion suns when the light was released and was growing by 1 percent every million years, researchers said in a statement released today (May 15).

"This black hole is growing so rapidly that it's shining thousands of times more brightly than an entire galaxy, due to all the gases it sucks in daily that cause lots of friction and heat," Christian Wolf, an astronomer at the Australian National University and first author on the new research, said in the statement.

"If we had this monster sitting at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, it would appear 10 times brighter than a full moon. It would appear as an incredibly bright, pinpoint star that would almost wash out all of the stars in the sky," he added.

Luckily, though, the black hole is far enough away that it likely released its light more than 12 billion years ago, the researchers said. The energy it emits is mostly ultraviolet light, but it also releases X-rays. "Again, if this monster was at the center of the Milky Way, it would likely make life on Earth impossible with the huge amounts of X-rays emanating from it," Wolf said.

Because of its distance and the expansion of space, that light had shifted into the near-infrared during its billions-of-years journey. Wolf and his colleagues spotted the light with the SkyMapper telescope at the ANU Siding Spring Observatory. They then used the Gaia satellite to measure that the object was sitting still, thereby also confirming that it was incredibly distant and likely a supermassive black hole, the researchers said. Then, another ANU telescope measured the wavelengths released from the object to verify its composition.

"We don't know how this one grew so large, so quickly in the early days of the universe," Wolf said. "The hunt is on to find even faster-growing black holes."

Wolf added that distant black holes like this one can help scientists study the early universe. Researchers can spot the shadows of other objects in front of the black holes, and their radiation also helps clear away obscuring gas.

With giant new ground-based telescopes currently under construction, scientists will also be able to use bright, distant objects like this voracious black hole to measure the universe's expansion, the researchers said.

The new work was accepted to the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

Full Story Here: Scientists Just Found the Fastest-Growing Black Hole. Here's How Fast It 'Eats'

 

[Halbhh]

Researchers have spotted the fastest-growing black hole ever found — and have seen the (thankfully) distant devourer consume a mass equivalent to Earth's sun every two days.

Researchers used newly released data from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite to confirm that the brightly shining object is a black hole, which appears to have been the mass of about 20 billion suns when the light was released and was growing by 1 percent every million years, researchers said in a statement released today (May 15).

"This black hole is growing so rapidly that it's shining thousands of times more brightly than an entire galaxy, due to all the gases it sucks in daily that cause lots of friction and heat," Christian Wolf, an astronomer at the Australian National University and first author on the new research, said in the statement.

"If we had this monster sitting at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, it would appear 10 times brighter than a full moon. It would appear as an incredibly bright, pinpoint star that would almost wash out all of the stars in the sky," he added.

Luckily, though, the black hole is far enough away that it likely released its light more than 12 billion years ago, the researchers said. The energy it emits is mostly ultraviolet light, but it also releases X-rays. "Again, if this monster was at the center of the Milky Way, it would likely make life on Earth impossible with the huge amounts of X-rays emanating from it," Wolf said.

Because of its distance and the expansion of space, that light had shifted into the near-infrared during its billions-of-years journey. Wolf and his colleagues spotted the light with the SkyMapper telescope at the ANU Siding Spring Observatory. They then used the Gaia satellite to measure that the object was sitting still, thereby also confirming that it was incredibly distant and likely a supermassive black hole, the researchers said. Then, another ANU telescope measured the wavelengths released from the object to verify its composition.

"We don't know how this one grew so large, so quickly in the early days of the universe," Wolf said. "The hunt is on to find even faster-growing black holes."

Wolf added that distant black holes like this one can help scientists study the early universe. Researchers can spot the shadows of other objects in front of the black holes, and their radiation also helps clear away obscuring gas.

With giant new ground-based telescopes currently under construction, scientists will also be able to use bright, distant objects like this voracious black hole to measure the universe's expansion, the researchers said.

The new work was accepted to the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

Full Story Here: Scientists Just Found the Fastest-Growing Black Hole. Here's How Fast It 'Eats'

Dude! Emitting spectral line from ionized iron!
:=)

You know what that suggests! Could be some big-ass star near the end of its life sucked in before it went nova, and already had plenty of iron inside! Fun. Would love to safely see that happening.

 

[Shadow]

Dude! Emitting spectral line from ionized iron!
:=)

You know what that suggests! Could be some big-ass star near the end of its life sucked in before it went nova, and already had plenty of iron inside! Fun. Would love to safely see that happening.

yeah, that does sound really cool!

 

[essentialsaltes]

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Is Able to Drill Holes Into Rocks Again
This past weekend, [NASA] jerry-rigged Curiosity’s malfunctioning drill, allowing the rover to bore into Martian rock for the first time in over a year.

A Pale Blue Dot, As Seen by a CubeSat

NASA set a new distance record for CubeSats on May 8 when a pair of CubeSats called Mars Cube One (MarCO) reached 621,371 miles (1 million kilometers) from Earth. One of the CubeSats, called MarCO-B (and affectionately known as "Wall-E" to the MarCO team) used a fisheye camera to snap its first photo on May 9. That photo is part of the process used by the engineering team to confirm the spacecraft's high-gain antenna has properly unfolded.

As a bonus, it captured Earth and its moon as tiny specks floating in space.

 

[Halbhh]

Plate Tectonics May Be Essential for Life | Quanta Magazine

The interesting ways plate tectonics allows our stable atmosphere, and more.

 

[Shadow]

Chemical compounds necessary for life ("Organic Materials") found on Mars in 3.5 billion year old rocks (But not Life)

Big news from Mars today: NASA's Curiosity rover found ancient traces of organic matter embedded in Martian rocks and detected a "seasonal variation" in atmospheric methane on the Red Planet — an annual pulse of the gas, almost as if something out there were breathing.

These are exciting findings, published as twin papers in the journal Science today (June 7). But they aren't proof of life on Mars, or even necessarily strong evidence that there's anything living, or anything that used to be alive, out there. The organic compounds aren't even the first molecules of their kind found on Mars, though they are the oldest.

"We can explain both of these things with geological processes," said Inge Loes ten Kate, an astrobiologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands who wrote a commentary for Science accompanying the two papers. [7 Most Mars-like Places on Earth ]

Finding organic compounds — which are substances that contain carbon and are considered necessary components of life — in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks on Mars is a big deal, ten Kate told Live Science, and so is the discovery of the seasonal methane (CH4) variation in the atmosphere.

Living things produce a lot of organic molecules. And life as we know it requires organic molecules to exist. So the Martian traces of organic matter do hint that the basic conditions for life to form were present on Mars at around the same time they existed on Earth. (Curiosity has already shown that water flowed in Gale Crater, the same place the rover found these organic compounds, billions of years ago.)

And the seasonal methane pulse is perhaps, maybe, possibly — but far, far from certainly — the sort of signal Curiosity might detect if life did form back then and was still around somewhere, ten Kate said. On Earth, living things (especially bacteria) produce lots of methane, though the gas also has plenty of non-living sources.

But scientists found ancient organic matter! On Mars! Why isn't that a bigger deal?

One big reason, ten Kate said, is that it's not actually that surprising. "Organic matter" in this context doesn't mean anything we'd recognize from our lives on Earth. These aren't tufts of grass, or bits of flesh, or dead cells. "Organic matter" includes a whole host of compounds with carbon atoms in them. They're considered necessary for life to form, but there are plenty of places with lots of organic compounds but no life. In this case, Curiosity found molecules with names like "thiophene" (C4H4S) and "dimethylsulfide" (C2H6S) that aren't all that rare in the solar system.

There's enough ambient carbon and hydrogen in the solar system that they react to form basic organic compounds pretty frequently, even without biology involved, ten Kate said.

"Even nowadays on Earth, we see a large influx of extraterrestrial [organic] material in the form of interplanetary dust and meteorites," ten Kate said.

That stuff is thought to be spread throughout the solar system, she said. And scientists already expected that, in the early, more turbulent days of the solar system, organic compounds would rain down on Mars. (We can find organic material on the Jupiter's moon for the same reason, and Curiosity first spotted organic compounds on Mars back in 2014, though in less-ancient rocks.)

These newly-found ancient organics, ten Kate said, serve to confirm that the basic conditions for life to form really did exist on Mars 3.5 billion years ago, and that there wasn't any outside force (say, ultraviolet light) powerful enough to destroy them entirely.

The authors of the two studies in Science agree with her, writing that there's no way to tell what produced the molecules And certain features of the molecules show they aren't the direct, unchanged remnants of anything living.

"[Curiosity's] molecular observations do not clearly reveal the source of the organic matter in [Gale Crater]. Biological, geological and meteoritic sources are all possible," they wrote.

Part of the problem, the researchers wrote, is that the molecules have changed a great deal in the eons since they originally formed. Whatever chemical structure they once had might have offered clues as to their origin, but it's long since been lost.

For those reasons, ten Kate said, the methane variation is the more exciting finding. Certainly, there are geological processes that could make methane levels change over the Martian year, she said. A likely candidate: "serpentinization," where water and minerals react, releasing methane. It's possible, ten Kate said, that this could happen on Mars. And the reaction might speed up and slow down over the course of the year as the planet warms and cools, producing the pulse without any living source.

To figure out the source of the methane flux, ten Kate said, scientists need to determine how widespread it is on Mars. (So far, it's been detected only in Gale Crater, where Curiosity hangs out.) They also need to figure out how old it is and its specific chemistry; Curiosity's sensors didn't reveal whether the methane molecules are ancient or new, or whether they include similar isotopes of carbon to methane released by life on Earth.

The answers to those questions will require more equipment and more measurement hours, ten Kate said. But these findings do, at the very least, point the way forward in the Martian hunt for life.

Source Here: There May Be Life on Mars, But This NASA Report Doesn't Prove It
Further Information: Nasa Mars rover finds organic matter in ancient lake bed

 

[Ophiolite]

Chemical compounds necessary for life ("Organic Materials") found on Mars in 3.5 billion year old rocks (But not Life)

Big news from Mars today: NASA's Curiosity rover found ancient traces of organic matter embedded in Martian rocks and detected a "seasonal variation" in atmospheric methane on the Red Planet — an annual pulse of the gas, almost as if something out there were breathing.

These are exciting findings, published as twin papers in the journal Science today (June 7). But they aren't proof of life on Mars, or even necessarily strong evidence that there's anything living, or anything that used to be alive, out there. The organic compounds aren't even the first molecules of their kind found on Mars, though they are the oldest.

"We can explain both of these things with geological processes," said Inge Loes ten Kate, an astrobiologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands who wrote a commentary for Science accompanying the two papers. [7 Most Mars-like Places on Earth ]

Finding organic compounds — which are substances that contain carbon and are considered necessary components of life — in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks on Mars is a big deal, ten Kate told Live Science, and so is the discovery of the seasonal methane (CH4) variation in the atmosphere.

Living things produce a lot of organic molecules. And life as we know it requires organic molecules to exist. So the Martian traces of organic matter do hint that the basic conditions for life to form were present on Mars at around the same time they existed on Earth. (Curiosity has already shown that water flowed in Gale Crater, the same place the rover found these organic compounds, billions of years ago.)

And the seasonal methane pulse is perhaps, maybe, possibly — but far, far from certainly — the sort of signal Curiosity might detect if life did form back then and was still around somewhere, ten Kate said. On Earth, living things (especially bacteria) produce lots of methane, though the gas also has plenty of non-living sources.

But scientists found ancient organic matter! On Mars! Why isn't that a bigger deal?

One big reason, ten Kate said, is that it's not actually that surprising. "Organic matter" in this context doesn't mean anything we'd recognize from our lives on Earth. These aren't tufts of grass, or bits of flesh, or dead cells. "Organic matter" includes a whole host of compounds with carbon atoms in them. They're considered necessary for life to form, but there are plenty of places with lots of organic compounds but no life. In this case, Curiosity found molecules with names like "thiophene" (C4H4S) and "dimethylsulfide" (C2H6S) that aren't all that rare in the solar system.

There's enough ambient carbon and hydrogen in the solar system that they react to form basic organic compounds pretty frequently, even without biology involved, ten Kate said.

"Even nowadays on Earth, we see a large influx of extraterrestrial [organic] material in the form of interplanetary dust and meteorites," ten Kate said.

That stuff is thought to be spread throughout the solar system, she said. And scientists already expected that, in the early, more turbulent days of the solar system, organic compounds would rain down on Mars. (We can find organic material on the Jupiter's moon for the same reason, and Curiosity first spotted organic compounds on Mars back in 2014, though in less-ancient rocks.)

These newly-found ancient organics, ten Kate said, serve to confirm that the basic conditions for life to form really did exist on Mars 3.5 billion years ago, and that there wasn't any outside force (say, ultraviolet light) powerful enough to destroy them entirely.

The authors of the two studies in Science agree with her, writing that there's no way to tell what produced the molecules And certain features of the molecules show they aren't the direct, unchanged remnants of anything living.

"[Curiosity's] molecular observations do not clearly reveal the source of the organic matter in [Gale Crater]. Biological, geological and meteoritic sources are all possible," they wrote.

Part of the problem, the researchers wrote, is that the molecules have changed a great deal in the eons since they originally formed. Whatever chemical structure they once had might have offered clues as to their origin, but it's long since been lost.

For those reasons, ten Kate said, the methane variation is the more exciting finding. Certainly, there are geological processes that could make methane levels change over the Martian year, she said. A likely candidate: "serpentinization," where water and minerals react, releasing methane. It's possible, ten Kate said, that this could happen on Mars. And the reaction might speed up and slow down over the course of the year as the planet warms and cools, producing the pulse without any living source.

To figure out the source of the methane flux, ten Kate said, scientists need to determine how widespread it is on Mars. (So far, it's been detected only in Gale Crater, where Curiosity hangs out.) They also need to figure out how old it is and its specific chemistry; Curiosity's sensors didn't reveal whether the methane molecules are ancient or new, or whether they include similar isotopes of carbon to methane released by life on Earth.

The answers to those questions will require more equipment and more measurement hours, ten Kate said. But these findings do, at the very least, point the way forward in the Martian hunt for life.

Source Here: There May Be Life on Mars, But This NASA Report Doesn't Prove It
Further Information: Nasa Mars rover finds organic matter in ancient lake bed

What I would have found astounding would have been if NASA had been able to demonstrate that there was practically no organic matter on Mars. That would have required a major reworking of our hypotheses on the formation of planetary systems. The expectation of organic molecules on Mars is based upon the following:

• Carbon is the fourth most common element in the galaxy.
• Almost two hundred organic compounds have been detected in the Giant Molecular Clouds from which planetary systems form.
• Comets contain abundant organics
• Meteorites contain 1.5% carbon and more in the carbonaceous chondrites that are thought to have contributed the bulk of the mass of the terrestrial planets

If we had failed to find significant organics on Mars we would have had to develop an ingenious theory to account for that.

 

[Justatruthseeker]

That's true in some key ways -> Elementary particle physics (the building blocks of all this Universe as we think of it so far) is on the most fundamental level -- the most foundational level of physics -- very much in flux with new hypotheses it seems like every month or two, sometimes more often.

We think we cannot explain (not in a currently testable way, nor even a speculation that most physicists think is credible either!) about 95% of what this Universe is!

That non-radiative (no radiation from it) unknown stuff we think may exist that we call "dark matter" and the stuff we call "dark energy" -- meaning they don't emit nor do they absorb (we think) any light or EM radiation of any kind so far as we can tell. And even whether they really exist or instead we just have some really basic things wrong, etc.
So many speculations!

That's because if you think about it, they once believed the universe was 1% plasma. Now we know it is 99.9% plasma, but all our theories stem from the period when we believed it was 1%

So we have a theory that is 99.9% accurate in describing the behavior of non-ionized matter (planets).

We then apply that theory to the rest of the universe which is 99.9% ionized matter (plasma).

The theory gives the wrong results by 96%.

Instead of using the correct physics for the correct states of matter, they instead add Fairie Dust in just the right amounts to make their numbers add up because they dont want to abandon incorrect theories from using the wrong physics.

I find it odd that no one considers that the physics for non-ionized matter is 99.9% correct inside the solar system, but as soon as it is applied outside the solar system to matter which is 99.9% ionized, it becomes 96% incorrect, but nobody wants to question this. Instead they just accept the Fairie Dust....

 

[Justatruthseeker]

Chemical compounds necessary for life ("Organic Materials") found on Mars in 3.5 billion year old rocks (But not Life)

Big news from Mars today: NASA's Curiosity rover found ancient traces of organic matter embedded in Martian rocks and detected a "seasonal variation" in atmospheric methane on the Red Planet — an annual pulse of the gas, almost as if something out there were breathing.

These are exciting findings, published as twin papers in the journal Science today (June 7). But they aren't proof of life on Mars, or even necessarily strong evidence that there's anything living, or anything that used to be alive, out there. The organic compounds aren't even the first molecules of their kind found on Mars, though they are the oldest.

"We can explain both of these things with geological processes," said Inge Loes ten Kate, an astrobiologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands who wrote a commentary for Science accompanying the two papers. [7 Most Mars-like Places on Earth ]

Finding organic compounds — which are substances that contain carbon and are considered necessary components of life — in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks on Mars is a big deal, ten Kate told Live Science, and so is the discovery of the seasonal methane (CH4) variation in the atmosphere.

Living things produce a lot of organic molecules. And life as we know it requires organic molecules to exist. So the Martian traces of organic matter do hint that the basic conditions for life to form were present on Mars at around the same time they existed on Earth. (Curiosity has already shown that water flowed in Gale Crater, the same place the rover found these organic compounds, billions of years ago.)

And the seasonal methane pulse is perhaps, maybe, possibly — but far, far from certainly — the sort of signal Curiosity might detect if life did form back then and was still around somewhere, ten Kate said. On Earth, living things (especially bacteria) produce lots of methane, though the gas also has plenty of non-living sources.

But scientists found ancient organic matter! On Mars! Why isn't that a bigger deal?

One big reason, ten Kate said, is that it's not actually that surprising. "Organic matter" in this context doesn't mean anything we'd recognize from our lives on Earth. These aren't tufts of grass, or bits of flesh, or dead cells. "Organic matter" includes a whole host of compounds with carbon atoms in them. They're considered necessary for life to form, but there are plenty of places with lots of organic compounds but no life. In this case, Curiosity found molecules with names like "thiophene" (C4H4S) and "dimethylsulfide" (C2H6S) that aren't all that rare in the solar system.

There's enough ambient carbon and hydrogen in the solar system that they react to form basic organic compounds pretty frequently, even without biology involved, ten Kate said.

"Even nowadays on Earth, we see a large influx of extraterrestrial [organic] material in the form of interplanetary dust and meteorites," ten Kate said.

That stuff is thought to be spread throughout the solar system, she said. And scientists already expected that, in the early, more turbulent days of the solar system, organic compounds would rain down on Mars. (We can find organic material on the Jupiter's moon for the same reason, and Curiosity first spotted organic compounds on Mars back in 2014, though in less-ancient rocks.)

These newly-found ancient organics, ten Kate said, serve to confirm that the basic conditions for life to form really did exist on Mars 3.5 billion years ago, and that there wasn't any outside force (say, ultraviolet light) powerful enough to destroy them entirely.

The authors of the two studies in Science agree with her, writing that there's no way to tell what produced the molecules And certain features of the molecules show they aren't the direct, unchanged remnants of anything living.

"[Curiosity's] molecular observations do not clearly reveal the source of the organic matter in [Gale Crater]. Biological, geological and meteoritic sources are all possible," they wrote.

Part of the problem, the researchers wrote, is that the molecules have changed a great deal in the eons since they originally formed. Whatever chemical structure they once had might have offered clues as to their origin, but it's long since been lost.

For those reasons, ten Kate said, the methane variation is the more exciting finding. Certainly, there are geological processes that could make methane levels change over the Martian year, she said. A likely candidate: "serpentinization," where water and minerals react, releasing methane. It's possible, ten Kate said, that this could happen on Mars. And the reaction might speed up and slow down over the course of the year as the planet warms and cools, producing the pulse without any living source.

To figure out the source of the methane flux, ten Kate said, scientists need to determine how widespread it is on Mars. (So far, it's been detected only in Gale Crater, where Curiosity hangs out.) They also need to figure out how old it is and its specific chemistry; Curiosity's sensors didn't reveal whether the methane molecules are ancient or new, or whether they include similar isotopes of carbon to methane released by life on Earth.

The answers to those questions will require more equipment and more measurement hours, ten Kate said. But these findings do, at the very least, point the way forward in the Martian hunt for life.

Source Here: There May Be Life on Mars, But This NASA Report Doesn't Prove It
Further Information: Nasa Mars rover finds organic matter in ancient lake bed

The Methane I dont find convincing, since we create it in the lab from chemical reactions. Life is not needed to explain it.

Methane is one of the chemical reaction products between sodium hydroxide and sodium acetate. ... This reaction is often used to obtain methane in the laboratory.

 

[Shadow]

Dust Storm Covers the Whole of Mars

On Mars, the sky is dust.

A massive dust storm on Mars that covered one-fourth of the planet just a week ago has grown into a global weather event, NASA officials said Wednesday (June 20).

The dust storm has knocked NASA's Opportunity rover offline for want of sunlight. The agency's nuclear-powered Curiosity, meanwhile, is snapping photos of the ever-darkening Martian sky. The two rovers are on opposite sides of Mars.

"The Martian dust storm has grown in size and is now officially a 'planet-encircling' (or 'global') dust event," NASA officials said in a statement. [The Mars Dust Storm of 2018 Explained]

The last dust storm on Mars to go global occurred in 2007, five years before the Curiosity rover landed at its Gale Crater site, according to officials with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The Opportunity rover has been exploring the plains of Meridiani Planum on the opposite side of Mars since 2004. During that 2007 Martian dust storm, NASA also lost contact with Opportunity for days due to low power levels from the lack of sunlight.

More Information here: Epic Dust Storm on Mars Now Completely Covers the Red Planet

The image below is from the Mars rover Oppurtunity showing how lighting conditions have changed from May to June 2018