History repeats itself: Water on Mars...again?

Not to be a downer but my reaction to the recent Nasa announcement about liquid water on Mars was a bit different (although to be clear, it is an exciting discovery). A more suspicious individual might wonder about funding pressure and the timing of this announcement with the theatrical release of a spectacular movie, the Martian, but we won't go there.

I remember a lecture from a University of Michigan professor I attended 5 years ago about how one of the rover pictures almost certainly captured a briny flow on the surface of Mars. I also remember all kinds of announcements about water on Mars growing up. So, I turned to Wikipedia and was not disappointed:

Chronology of discoveries of water on Mars

Turns out someone has actually cataloged this! It is an interesting read for all of you space nerds out there.

Clear skies!

Curiosity Detects Methane Spike on Mars

Last week the following was posted by NASA....

Dec. 16, 2014: NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill.

"This temporary increase in methane -- sharply up and then back down -- tells us there must be some relatively localized source," said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Curiosity rover science team. "There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock."

Traces of Methane have been seen on Mars in the past. While it is possible that this Methane and the other organic molecules are indications of the presence of bacteria on or near the surface of Mars, there are non-biological explanations as well. Scientists are continually analyzing data in an attempt to determine the source of this Methane. For the full NASA post go to....

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/16dec_methanespike/

Also see this post from the University of Michigan....

http://www.engin.umich.edu/college/about/news/stories/2014/december/curiosity-rover-finds-organics-on-mars