NASA press conference on Mars discovery today

[Knighty2112]

Not sure what Curiosity has found, but NASA is holding a press conference today about whatever it is folks (according to my Twitter feed anyway), so keep a lookout!

https://amp.space.com/40792-nasa-mars-rover-curiosity-announcement-june-2018.html?__twitter_impression=true

 

[geordie85]

A mirror to take selfies in.

But seriously how does it take complete selfies without anything extending out from it?

[JamesF]

I believe it takes a sufficient number of images from different angles to allow the camera arm to be edited out.

James

[JamesF]

Or perhaps that's just too awkward and it just asks a passing Martian to take a photo instead.

James

[JamesF]

This is a nice demonstration of how they use the camera to make it work:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1171

James

[Stub Mandrel]

"Mars is flat!"

[JamesF]

This is another interesting piece on the camera: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/08191059-curiosity-self-portrait-history-belly-pan.html

James

[Stub Mandrel]

Chris Webster is the specialist - spectral analysis so it's probably evidence of past atmospheres/water etc.

[Knighty2112]

1 minute ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Chris Webster is the specialist - spectral analysis so it's probably evidence of past atmospheres/water etc.

Don’t we already have evidence for that? 

[Stub Mandrel]

Possibly a 'signatures of life' twist (isotope ratios  - can they do that by spectroscopy?' or 'past atmosphere could have supported life'?

 

Edit - yes they can use 'tunable laser spectrography' to distinguish between C12 and C13 as 'indicators of biogenic activity'.

My guess is carbon or something else ratios in rock 'infer' past presence of biological activity.

[barkis]

I thought this revelation was to be revealed at 1800 our time. They're  just repeating a questions and answers between 
Students, and two ISS crew members, and a Nasa Birthday celebration.
Goodness knows when they will get around to the big News .

[Stub Mandrel]

Well we will know soon if their website doesn't crash...

[Stub Mandrel]

24 minutes ago, barkis said:

I thought this revelation was to be revealed at 1800 our time. They're  just repeating a questions and answers between 
Students, and two ISS crew members, and a Nasa Birthday celebration.
Goodness knows when they will get around to the big News .

18:00 GMT - 19:00 BST

[Stub Mandrel]

So are martian microbes smelling of garlid (dithiin) and farting methane?

[Knighty2112]

Playing now. The big reveal is organic molecules have been found on Mars.

[Chris]

4 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Playing now. The big reveal is organic molecules have been found on Mars.

Pretty cool find! One step closer to detecting life out there somewhere other than Earth  

[barkis]

And I was thinking the curiosity had trapped  a Martian Hedgehog under it's wheel.
I'm no Chemist, so I have to leave it to those who are to explain the Importance, or otherwise of
these findings. They must be important of some magnitude,
otherwise they wouldn't be making a big thing of these findings.

[Knighty2112]

Methane gas also been detected.

[Knighty2112]

Apparently the methane gas levels are seasonal, but the can’t tell at the moment if this methane is from a biological origin, or just a chemicl reaction with certain substances. Higher levels recorded in spring and summer.

[Knighty2112]

Apparently methane can only last in the atmosphere for 300 years, so the methane seen has to be as recent as that.

[Stub Mandrel]

The methane could be in clathrates - trapped in the underground ice that melts from time to time, which might make the two pulses, one for spring in each hemisphere.

[Knighty2112]

Interesting. Screen shot grabbed whilst talking about methane and clathrates. Not a geologists, so don’t fully understand it.  Hopefully some of you might.  

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Clathrates are just methane frozen into water ice. The diagram suggests the source could either be biological or geological.

Alternatively it could be from degrading surface material.

They say the reason it drops is that UV converts it into formaldehyde that degrades to CO2 and methanol.

[barkis]

Is Curiosity not capable of breaking wind? ?

[Knighty2112]

8 minutes ago, barkis said:

Is Curiosity not capable of breaking wind? ?

Maybe Curiosities exhaust is too close to its own intake?