In between the minor events held Tuesday and the outlandish weather all over the country the prior week there was this tiny little news story about methane on Mars. As usual, the Bad Astronomer had the best coverage.
- http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/01/19/mars-methane-media-mess/
- http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/01/19/more-martian-methane-michael-mumma-movie/
Having the scientists themselves on camera and with animations to illustrate the effect is always cool.
I mention this “old” story because I think the rest of the press coverage sounds generally like “the methane is either a sign of life or something boring and banal…”. Nothing could be more untrue- well, maybe the Sun’s coverage that pretty much says “Green men found building statues on mars” is technically MORE untrue, but you get the idea.
Watch the Mumma video. The methane could be coming from a chemical, biological or geological source, or a combination. Any of the options is exciting, proving once again that science is cool and we nerds rule not just the world, but the solar system as well.