Thursday, 5 September 2024.
Carbon (18.5%) is the second most plentiful component within the human bodybehind oxygen (65%) and adopted by hydrogen (9.5%).
Earlier than speaking about Mars, one thing about our planet Earth, by way of 4 phrases that seem within the implausible documentary “Carbon: The Unauthorised Biography”.
By the best way, as the primary two posts this week have been about geology …
… We start with a quote from geologist Bob Hazen:
(1) “Every one of us lives in a carbon world. We have to learn to get along with carbon. And she’s very happy to get along with us if we treat her right.”
But additionally the phrases, respectively, from a historian, a local weather scientist and an ecologist:
(2) “We’ve developed this relationship with carbon that has benefited us humans in many, many powerful ways… We now have the feeling that we’re managing a planet, but what we’re beginning to learn is that we’re in a lot less control of things than we thought. And the power itself is dangerous” David Christian.
(3) “Carbon has gone from being a benevolent force, a protector of the earth system in a stable state, but now she’s being released and increasing in the atmosphere. She is becoming a destroyer” Will Steffen.
(4) “The carbon cycle shows that we’re all irretrievably connected … we’re all in this together”, Suzanne Simard.
So what did NASA discover intriguing about carbon on Mars?
Researchers on the Curiosity rover discovered that just about half of their samples (Gale Crater) had surprisingly massive quantities of carbon-12 in comparison with what scientists measured within the Martian environment and meteorites.
What occurs is that dwelling creatures on Earth use the carbon-12 atom – smaller and lighter – to metabolize meals or for photosynthesis. Versus the heavier carbon-13 atom.
“On Earth, the processes that would produce the carbon signal we are detecting on Mars are biological,” say the scientists.
“We have to understand if the same explanation works for Mars, or if there are other explanations”. Mars could have began with a unique mixture of carbon isotopes to these on Earth 4.5 billion years in the past. Mars is smaller, colder, has weaker gravity and completely different gases in its environment. Moreover, carbon on Mars may very well be circulating with none life concerned.
“There’s a big part of the Earth’s carbon cycle that involves life, and because of life, there’s a part of the Earth’s carbon cycle that we can’t understand, because everywhere we look there’s life,” stated Andrew Steele, scientist on the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC.
Click on on the picture beneath to be taught extra on the NASA Mars Mission portal. You will discover different intriguing matters resembling methane… and oxygen.
