Friday, November 25, 2011

Reason #75: Mars, Bitches


Recent expeditions to Mars have discovered what seems to be methane in the atmosphere. Earth's methane comes largely, but not exclusively, from cow farts and other similarly delightful biological processes, and doesn't stick around for long once created, so finding it in the barely-extant Martian atmosphere would be a big sign not just that life has existed on Mars in the past, but that it's still there somewhere.

The evidence so far is controversial, naturally, so launching tomorrow from Cape Canaveral is the Mars Science Laboratory, carrying with it the new rover Curiosity, which is specifically designed to detect methane.

If it does so upon its arrival next August, that would appear to be the most significant evidence yet (aside from, y'know, the water) that for all Mars' wasteland-like qualities, there are still microorganisms, at the very least, quite literally farting around up there.

(Side Note - I'm hesitant to go so far as to declare Space Fridays a thing now, but I've managed to keep it up for three weeks running so far, and I'm going to do my best to keep it that way. Just so's ya know.)

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