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

Analysis of Higg's Boson Decay Now Shows no Suggestion of Additional Particles (Still no particles that explain dark matter).

Update on the blog post of Friday, January 11, 2013
(http://lowbrows.blogspot.com/2013/01/dark-matter-susy-dna.html)

Shortly after the discovery of the Higgs Boson two years ago, physicists suspected that a new particle lurked in the data (new particles such as this could lead to an explanation for dark matter).

The Higgs Boson is unstable and rapidly decays into other particles. It does so through several different "channels", one  is the gamma gamma channel where the Higgs Boson decays into two gamma particles. This decay cannot occur in one step, it must occur through intermediate particles. The percentage of decays that goes through each decay is called the yield. The yield in turn is based on the available particles. If there are unknown particles available, this will affect the yield.

There was an anomoly in the yield of the gamma gamma channel (the yield was higher than expected) which suggested the existance of a previously undiscovered particle or particles. Such particles might be the components of dark matter.

However based on more careful analysis, this anomoly has disappeared and now there is no suggestion of additional particles.

That doesn't rule out future experiments finding new particles. The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) where the Higgs Boson was discovered is currently undergoing renovations. It will restart at higher energy in 2015. When it restarts, it will be looking for new particles as well as exploring the properties of existing particles, especially the Higgs Boson.

For more information see: https://www.sciencenews.org/editors-picks/higgs-boson (to read the entire article requires a subscription to Science News).