Methane On Mars – Tracks Of Life?

Methane atmospheric abundance spectrometry overlay on Martian surface. Image Credit: NASA

Methane On Mars – Tracks Of Life?

NASA has issued a press release describing the detection of methane gas on Mars and how this may be evidence of life on the red planet.

NASA cautions, "Right now, we do not have enough information to tell whether biology or geology -- or both -- is producing the methane on Mars," said Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.. "But it does tell us the planet is still alive, at least in a geologic sense. It is as if Mars is challenging us, saying, 'hey, find out what this means.' "

If microscopic Martian life is producing the methane, it likely resides far below the surface where it is warm enough for liquid water to exist. Liquid water is necessary for all known forms of life, as are energy sources and a supply of carbon.

The process of how the methane gas was detected is in itself a good story.

Conceptual animation demonstrating the process of spectroscopy and how it was applied to the discovery of methane in Mars’ atmosphere (click photo). Image Credit: Chris Smith/NASA

This excerpted and edited from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration –

Discovery of Methane Reveals Mars Is Not a Dead Planet
By: Dwayne Brown - NASA, Nancy Neal-Jones, and Bill Steigerwald of the Goddard Space Flight Center - Jan. 15, 2009

WASHINGTON -- A team of NASA and university scientists has achieved the first definitive detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars. This discovery indicates the planet is either biologically or geologically active.

The team found methane in the Martian atmosphere by carefully observing the planet throughout several Mars years with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck telescope, both at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The team used spectrometers on the telescopes to spread the light into its component colors, as a prism separates white light into a rainbow. The team detected three spectral features called absorption lines that together are a definitive signature of methane.

"Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars in 2003 indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas," said Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "At northern mid-summer, methane is released at a rate comparable to that of the massive hydrocarbon seep at Coal Oil Point in Santa Barbara, Calif." Mumma is lead author of a paper describing this research that will appear in Science Express on Thursday.

Methane, four atoms of hydrogen bound to a carbon atom, is the main component of natural gas on Earth. Astrobiologists are interested in these data because organisms release much of Earth's methane as they digest nutrients. However, other purely geological processes, like oxidation of iron, also release methane.
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Animation depicting two processes (geochemical and biological) that may have produced the methane plumes now seen in Mars’ atmosphere (click photo). Image Credit: Susan Twardy/NASA

"We observed and mapped multiple plumes of methane on Mars, one of which released about 19,000 metric tons of methane," said co-author Geronimo Villanueva of the Catholic University of America in Washington. "The plumes were emitted during the warmer seasons, spring and summer, perhaps because ice blocking cracks and fissures vaporized, allowing methane to seep into the Martian air."
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One method to test whether life produced this methane is by measuring isotope ratios.

Isotopes of an element have slightly different chemical properties, and life prefers to use the lighter isotopes.

A chemical called deuterium is a heavier version of hydrogen. Methane and water released on Mars should show distinctive ratios for isotopes of hydrogen and carbon if life was responsible for methane production.

It will take future missions, like NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, to discover the origin of the Martian methane.

Additional photo and animation assets here.
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The Chunnel Begets ... The Strunnel!

On the train to France entering the Euro Tunnel (Taken on June 11, 2006 ) - Image Credit: Flickr - mbcrawford

The Chunnel Begets ... The Strunnel!

Russia is proposing to dig a tunnel, a very long tunnel, by which crossing and transporting goods across the Bering Strait to Alaska (and back) can be accomplished without the necessary calculations for weather and/or the limitations of air transport.

Much like the "Channel Tunnel" - The Chunnel ... I supposed one could call it The Strunnel!

The Chunnel, (Euro-Tunnel), Mini-Europe, Bruparck, Brussels (Taken on May 19, 2005) - Image Credit: Flickr - demode

Excerpts from Bloomberg (ht: SlashDot) -

Russia Plans World's Longest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska
By Yuriy Humber and Bradley Cook

April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russia plans to build the world's longest tunnel, a transport and pipeline link under the Bering Strait to Alaska, as part of a $65 billion project to supply the U.S. with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia.

The project, which Russia is coordinating with the U.S. and Canada, would take 10 to 15 years to complete, Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at the Russian Economy Ministry, told reporters in Moscow today. State organizations and private companies in partnership would build and control the route, known as TKM-World Link, he said.

A 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) transport corridor from Siberia into the U.S. will feed into the tunnel, which at 64 miles will be more than twice as long as the underwater section of the Channel Tunnel between the U.K. and France, according to the plan. The tunnel would run in three sections to link the two islands in the Bering Strait between Russia and the U.S.

"This will be a business project, not a political one," Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of Russia's agency for special economic zones, said at the media briefing. Russian officials will formally present the plan to the U.S. and Canadian governments next week, Razbegin said.

The Bering Strait tunnel will cost $10 billion to $12 billion, and the rest of the investment will be spent on the entire transport corridor, the plan estimates.

The Chunnel Construction Tour (Taken in August 1989) - Image Credit: Flickr - aplumb
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In Alaska, a supporter of the project is former Governor Walter Joseph Hickel, who plans to co-chair a conference on the subject in Moscow next week.

"Governor Hickel has long supported this concept, and he talks about it and writes about it," said Malcolm Roberts, a senior fellow at the Anchorage-based Institute of the North, a research policy group focused on Arctic issues. Hickel governed Alaska from 1966 to 1969 as a Republican and then from 1990 to 1994 as a member of the Independence Party.

Alaska's current officials, however, are preoccupied with other issues, including a plan to develop a pipeline to transport natural gas from the North Slope to the lower 48 U.S. states, Roberts said.
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Rail links in Russia and the U.S., where an almost 2,000- kilometer stretch from Angora to Fort Nelson in Canada would continue the route, would cost up to $15 billion, Razbegin said. With cargo traffic of as much as 100 million tons annually expected on the World Link, the investments in the rail section could be repaid in 20 years, he said.

"The transit link is that string on which all our industrial cluster projects could hang," Zubakin said.

Japan, China and Korea have expressed interest in the project, with Japanese companies offering to burrow the tunnel under the Bering Strait for $60 million a kilometer, half the price set down in the project, Razbegin said.
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The figures for the project come from a preliminary feasibility study. A full study could be funded from Russia's investment fund, set aside for large infrastructure projects, Bystrov said.
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