Credit where credit’s due
The new results from astronomers using two telescopes on Hawaii – NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility and the giant Keck telescope – which reveal the presence of methane in the atmosphere of Mars are enormously exciting. As far as we know, methane signals the presence of one of two things – either life or, more likely I would say, substantial geological activity on the surface. The volatile molecule will break down in the atmosphere, so for it to exist in detectable quantities it must be being replenished by one means or the other.
The press release makes no mention of the results from ESA’s Mars Express which also found methane in Mars’ atmosphere, announced a few years ago. The results of the Mars Express team were published in Science, the same journal that will carry the new results.
From what I can gather, the new results are an important confirmation of the Mars Express data, and move our understanding of what’s going on a step further forward. But not to mention that an ESA spacecraft had got there first is certainly uncharitable, and verges on the misleading (and why didn’t journalists check the story by googling ‘methane +mars’, for example?).
There used to be an old and hoary joke doing the rounds about how many times water had been discovered on Mars. Let’s not do the same with methane, potentially the most exciting discovery on the red planet for quite some time.
P.S. As ever Emily at the Planetary Society has all the details, including what exactly is new (seasonal variation) and how this fits with other work.
on January 16th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Hi Chris,
You’re absolutely right! I totally forgot about the Mars Express discovery to be honest.
I was a little surprised by the press conference as there was a lot of “old news” re-hashed (back in October, there was a huge buzz about using the MSL to seek out the methane “hot-spots”). There was some additional information, but the usual edgy NASA attitude with talking about possible life on Mars appeared to have vanished; there was way more focus on biological processes and not a lot on geological explanations.
All very exciting, but I was curious about how much spin was being put on the “discovery”. After all, the MSL has really been hit hard by a lot of bad press lately (mismanagement, budget overruns, delays, waste), this kind of news, if presented correctly, could give more life to the embattled MSL rover than to the Red Planet.
Call my cynical, but I wonder if the MSL landing zone will change (right over one of the methane vents), suddenly becoming our “best hope ever” of uncovering life (we’ve heard that one before). That’s the fast way of getting Congress to sign some more cheques…
Those are my thoughts anyhow
I hope you are well!
Cheers, Ian
on January 18th, 2009 at 10:47 am
“Landing a lab on Mars”…
Will MSL now land close to a methane rich area (in red)? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The recent story about methane being detected in Mars’ atmosphere has lead to huge interest around the world, simultaneously renewing fervent media speculation of t…