Seasonal changes in Mars’ methane

very interesting.

Seasonal Geology and/or Biology.
I’m hoping it’s biology.

Lets go to Tharsis, Elysium and Arabia Terrae and find out.

–Ben

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Seasonal changes in Mars’ methane

DR EMILY BALDWIN
ASTRONOMY NOW
Posted: 21 September 2010

Using three martian years worth of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) data, scientists presenting their results at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome this week find that methane in the red planet’s atmosphere follows an annual cycle.

Mars’ atmosphere is predominantly carbon dioxide, with small amounts of nitrogen and argon, and trace amounts of oxygen, water and methane. But methane is of particular interest since, on Earth, it is produced by geological or biological activity.

“Only small amounts of methane are present in the martian atmosphere, coming from very localised sources,” says Sergio Fonti of the Università del Salento. “We’ve looked at changes in concentrations of the gas and found that there are seasonal and also annual variations. The source of the methane could be geological activity or it could be biological – we can’t tell at this point. However, it appears that the upper limit for methane lifetime is less than a year in the martian atmosphere.”

Fonti and colleague Giuseppe Marzo of NASA Ames analysed data from the MGS Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) collected between July 1999 and October 2004, which equates to three martian years, pulling out methane spectra from some three million observations.

More at:

http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1009/21mars/

Extraordinary Celestial Spiral IRAS 23166+1655

Cool.
–Ben

An Extraordinary Celestial Spiral

This remarkable picture from the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows one of the most perfect geometrical
forms created in space. It captures the formation of an unusual
pre-planetary nebula, known as IRAS 23166+1655, around the star LL Pegasi
(also known as AFGL 3068) in the constellation of Pegasus (the Winged
Horse).

The striking picture shows what appears to be a thin spiral pattern of
astonishingly regularity winding around the star, which is itself hidden
behind thick dust. The spiral pattern suggests a regular periodic origin
for the nebula’s shape. The material forming the spiral is moving outwards
a speed of about 50 000 km/hour and, by combining this speed with the
distance between layers, astronomers calculate that the shells are each
separated by about 800 years.

The spiral is thought to arise because LL Pegasi is a binary system, with
the star that is losing material and a companion star orbiting each other.
The spacing between layers in the spiral is expected to directly reflect
the orbital period of the binary, which is indeed estimated to be also
about 800 years…

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1020a/

Slacker Doug Welch awarded the Royal Society of Canada’s McNeil Medal!!!!

Our own Doug Welch has been awarded the prestigious McNeil Medal by the Royal Society of Canada.

The McNeil Medal is awarded to a candidate who has demonstrated outstanding ability to promote and communicate science to students and the public within Canada. Previous winners include David Suzuki, Jay Ingram, and Bob McDonald.

Congrats Doug!

Accuracy, Precision and Uncertainty in Data

I recently gave a talk at the Citizen Sky Workshop in San Francisco entitled Accuracy, Precision and Uncertainty in Data. Click that for a PDF of the slides from my talk. Eventually (I think) I’ll be able to link to a video of the talk as well. I welcome questions or discussion about this. I give you permission to use these if you credit me appropriately as the author.

Doug gave a couple of great talks as well and we’ll post those as well.

Enjoy!