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Content with the tag: “methane”
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Making Sense of Mars Methane
Research on methane at a Mexican salt flat could help reveal the source of methane that has been detected in the atmosphere of Mars. But first scientists have to decipher the unique – and seemingly contradictory – isotopic signature of the Mexican methane.
June 9, 2008 / Written by: David Tenenbaum, Astrobiology Magazine
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Methane and Water Vapor Observed in Atmosphere of Exoplanet
Former NAI Postdoctoral Fellow Giovanna Tinetti is co-author on a groundbreaking paper in this week’s Nature detailing the observation of methane and water vapor in the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD 189733b. The team used the NASA Hubble Space Telescope to observe the transiting exoplanet, using the NICMOS camera to obtain a spectrophotometric time series. This result is a milestone in the search for life elsewhere in the Universe, most importantly because it...
March 25, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Methane in the Martian Atmosphere
Scientists from NAI’s IPTAI Team have a paper out in Geophysical Research Letters detailing a new mechanism for recent methane release on Mars. Their results show that increasing salinity can cause destabilization of subsurface methane hydrates, and that active thermal or pressure fluctuations are not required to account for the presence of methane in the atmosphere.
June 17, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe
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NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Images Seas on Titan
Instruments on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have found evidence for seas, likely filled with liquid methane or ethane, in the high northern latitudes of Saturn’s moon Titan. One such feature is larger than any of the Great Lakes of North America and is about the same size as several seas on Earth.
March 13, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe
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Spectra of Two Extrasolar Planets
Researchers from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Teams have a new paper in Nature describing the infrared spectrum of exoplanet HD 209458b as obtained by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. Scientists from NAI’s University of Arizona and Alumni Virtual Planetary Laboratory Teams are contributing authors on a similar paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters which details the spectrum of exoplanet HD 189733b. Both sets of results show relatively flat spectra, with...
February 25, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe
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Biogeochemistry and Oxygenic Photosynthesis
Researchers from NAI’s University of Colorado, Boulder Team recently reported in Earth and Planetary Science Letters their new biogeochemical model relating to the Great Oxidation Event. With ion microprobe data for individual sulfides from water-lain sedimentary units in the 2.45–2.22 Ga Huronian Supergroup, the team proposes a new model where enhanced weathering rates during interglacial thawing stimulated blooms of oxygenic photosynthesis, the demise of methane, and ultimately the irreversible rise in atmospheric oxygen between the first and second Huronian...
February 7, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe
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Abiogenic Explanation for Methane on Mars
Researchers from NAI’s Indiana Princeton Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative Team published their theory on the origin of the detected atmospheric methane on Mars in the current issue of Astrobiology. Measurements of deep fracture water samples from South Africa led to a model which distinguishes between abiogenic and microbial methane sources based upon their isotopic composition, and couples microbial methane production to molecular hydrogen generation by water radiolysis. The authors also propose an instrument for future missions to Mars which, with...
May 30, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe
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A Cause for Methane on Mars
Members of NAI’s UCLA Lead Team published a paper in this month’s Geophysical Research Letters describing how hydrothermal fluid processes driven by a small subsurface magmatic intrusion can produce methane on Mars.
July 19, 2005 / Posted by: Shige Abe
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Increased H2S in the Deep Ocean - Bad News for Life?
NAI scientists on the Penn State and University of Colorado teams published recently in Geology their studies showing that increases in the level of hydrogen sulfide in the deep ocean during oceanic anoxic periods in Earth’s history could cause elevated H2S levels in shallower waters and in the atmosphere. This may have caused, they propose, destruction of the ozone shield and an increase in atmospheric methane, and may have helped spell the end for life at several extinction events.
May 16, 2005 / Posted by: Shige Abe
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