Asteroid set to whiz past Earth sometime this month

An asteroid is making a second run at Earth, this time whizzing past in the next few days.

NASA is projecting that the basketball-court-sized asteroid, 2013 TX68, should fly by from March 5 to March 8. It will be the second time the asteroid has come near Earth, passing two years ago at a comfortable distance of about 1.3 million miles.

"We already knew this asteroid, 2013 TX68, would safely fly past Earth in early March, but this additional data allow us to get a better handle on its orbital path," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), said in a statement. "The data indicate that this small asteroid will probably pass much farther away from Earth than previously thought."
Related: Asteroid-mining company 3D-prints object from space rock metals

This graphic depicts the orbit of asteroid 2013 TX68. The asteroid will fly by Earth on March 8. The asteroid poses no threat to Earth during this flyby or in the foreseeable future. (NASA/JPL-Caltech Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
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ASTEROIDS
Asteroid set to whiz past Earth sometime this month
An asteroid is making a second run at Earth, this time whizzing past in the next few days.
NASA is projecting that the basketball-court-sized asteroid, 2013 TX68, should fly by from March 5 to March 8. It will be the second time the asteroid has come near Earth, passing two years ago at a comfortable distance of about 1.3 million miles.
"We already knew this asteroid, 2013 TX68, would safely fly past Earth in early March, but this additional data allow us to get a better handle on its orbital path," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), said in a statement. "The data indicate that this small asteroid will probably pass much farther away from Earth than previously thought."
Related: Asteroid-mining company 3D-prints object from space rock metals
CNEOS's latest prediction are that 2013 TX68 will fly by roughly 3 million miles from our planet. There is still a chance that it could pass closer, but certainly no closer than 15,000 miles above Earth's surface.
"There is no concern whatsoever regarding this asteroid - unless you were interested in seeing it with a telescope," said Chodas.
"Prospects for observing this asteroid, which were not very good to begin with, are now even worse because the asteroid is likely to be farther away, and therefore dimmer than previously believed."
Sean Marshall, a Cornell University grad student who works on observations of near-Earth asteroids, said the closest approach could be within Earth’s ‘ring’ of geostationary satellites or as far out as 40 times the distance to the Moon.
Related: Fireball meteor exploded over the Atlantic earlier this month
“Should this asteroid come closer than the geostationary satellites, it would be a rare occurrence -- that only happens about once per decade for large asteroids,” Marshall said in a statement. “What we know for sure is that it
will not collide with Earth this month, so do not panic.”
The asteroid was discovered by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey on Oct. 6, 2013, as it approached Earth on the nighttime side. After three days of tracking, the asteroid passed into the daytime sky and could no longer be observed. Because it was not tracked for very long, scientists cannot predict its
precise orbit around the Sun.
The arrival of 2013 TX68 is just the latest space rock to mesmerize asteroid hunters.
There was a close encounter with another asteroid on Christmas Eve. In that case, asteroid 2003 SD220 passed about 6.6 million miles from Earth — or about 27 times farther than the moon is from Earth. The asteroid was not visible to the naked eye.
Less than a month later, NASA announced it was opening a special office to track asteroids.
The Planetary Defense Coordination Office formalizes the agency’s existing program for detecting and tracking near-Earth Objects. The office is located within NASA’s Planetary Science Division, which is in the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Related: Meteorite hunters find 6 space rocks from Florida fireball
The space agency explained that more than 13,500 near-Earth objects have been discovered to date – more than 95 percent of them since NASA-funded surveys began in 1998. About 1,500 NEOs are now detected each year, according to NASA.
There were also several meteor sightings in February – including one in India that reportedly killed man, though that has been dismissed by NASA. A fireball exploded over the Atlantic Ocean also in February and six space rocks from a meteor were found in Florida.

Hack the Pentagon — US Government Challenges Hackers to Break its Security

The  United States Department of Defense (DoD) has the plan to boost their internal and network security by announcing what it calls "the first cyber Bug Bounty Program in the history of the federal government," officially inviting hackers to take up the challenge.
Dubbed "Hack the Pentagon," the bug bounty program invites the hackers and security researchers only from the United States to target its networks as well as the public faced websites which are registered under DoD.

 
   The bug bounty program will begin in April 2016, and the participants could win money (cash rewards) as well as recognition for their work, DoD says.

     While announcing 'Hack the Pentagon' initiative during a conference, DoD said only "Vetted Hackers" can participate in the Bug Bounty program, which means the candidates need to undergo a Background Check after registration and before finding vulnerabilities in its systems.
Moreover, candidates would be given a Predetermined Department Systems (might be real system alike) for a specific time period of the competition to access it.
So, don’t be confuse that the DoD will serve a critical piece of its infrastructure to hackers for disruption, rather the hackers will be allowed to target a predetermined system that is not part of its critical operations.
However, the Department of Defense has not yet confirmed what bounty would be provided to hackers upon a successful penetration of its network or web pages.
 
   Here is what you need to know

   

The hackers, foreign and internal criminals, are actively targeting government departments and critical infrastructure that could reveal national secrets.
Last year’s massive security breach in the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) revealed the private information of over 21.5 Million US government employees.
Just last month, an unknown hacker released personal details of at least 20,000 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and 9,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers.
Almost three years ago, the Pentagon said the Chinese government had conducted cyber attacks on the several United States diplomatic, economic as well as defense industry networks.
Therefore, the real purpose of launching dedicated bug bounty program for hackers could be a government initiative to identify vulnerabilities in its infrastructure that may expose any endangered state secrets.
Just like Bug Bounty programs offered by several Frontliners in the technology industry, Hack The Pentagon would also be an exercise for the federal authorities to boost up the security measures and counter the cyber attacks.
Instead of usual self-conducting Security Audit by the DoD internals itself, the new initiative would provide an opportunity for the fresh brains outside the Pentagon to challenge DoD infrastructure and enhance the security measures.

Bugatti: Automaker Shares Details of New $2.6 Million Chiron Vehicle. I'll Really Look Good in It 👍👍

It’s finally happened, the new Bugatti Chiron, the successor to the Veyron has officially been unveiled.

In the revealing press release, Bugatti notes right off of the bat that the Chiron is “the world’s most powerful, fastest, most luxurious and most exclusive production super sports car.”


I’ll start off this article with the power, something we’ve all been looking forward to learning more about. Powering the car is the 8.0-liter W16 engine with two-stage turbocharging, which pumps out an extraordinary 1,500 and 1,180 lb-ft of torque between 2,000 and 6,000 RPM. With this power and the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, Bugatti states that the Chiron is ready to set a new world speed record, especially with ta stated top speed of 260.9 mph. It should also be mentioned that the Chiron will be able to run 0-62 mph in less than 2.5 seconds. And if you expected there to be a lot of radiators, like the Veyron, the Chiron hosts ten of them.

The new king of hypercars is here.
“It is part of human nature to cross boundaries and set new records – to run 100 m faster than ever before, to fly even further into space and to enter new realms. This striving is also our driving force at Bugatti. The Chiron is the result of our efforts to make the best even better.” – Wolfgang Dürheimer, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.

To make the Chiron more nimble, especially when compared to the Veyron, Bugatti installed a new carbon fiber monocoque, newly design adaptive chassis, tires designed especially for Bugatti, new brakes with Formula One technical modules and more. The adaptive chassis includes five driving programs, including Life, EB “Auto, Autobahn, Handling and Top Speed. Each mode changes the chassis height, shock absorbers, power assisted steering, four-wheel drive mode, rear differential, aerodynamic control system, stability control system and brake control system. In the rear is a unique spoiler that can be set to four different positions – “completely retracted, slightly extended (the position for the Top Speed mode), completely extended (for the Handling and Autobahn modes, with appropriately adapted angles) and also tilted forwards in the air brake position.”

Bugatti Chiron Specs

Price: $2.6 million
Engine: 8.0-liter W16
Horsepower: 1,500 hp
0–62: Under 2.5 seconds
Top Speed: 260 mph
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Torque: 1,180 lb-ft

Inside, French luxury is on full display with the Chiron. The cockpit has been designed specifically for a driver-oriented experience. When sitting down, the driver will have the climate control, infotainment systems and other features all within an arm’s reach. Separating the driver from the passengers is an illuminated C-bad that Bugatti is calling “the longest light conductor in the automobile industry.” As for materials, leather and carbon fiber is plentiful, whether it be on the steering wheel, seats or dashboard. Bugatti notes that they are offering 21 colors for leather and eight colors for Alcantara, allowing each Chiron to be tailor made.

If the sound of the exhaust system, complete with catalytic converters which are about six times larger than ones you’d find on medium-sized cars, isn’t enough, media can be played through an “Accuton” sound system that was developed exclusively for Bugatti. Each of the four tweeters in this system have a one-carat diamond membrane and give off a sound like that of a well-designed opera house.

If you’re interested in the Chiron, you’ll want to act quick. Bugatti says that they’ve already taken orders on one-third of the production Chirons planned, which is 500 total. Each comes with a base price of €2.4 million, roughly $2.6 million USD.see pictures below....

APPLE CREATES SELFIE STICK FOR MACKBOOK LAPTOP ... ... .. .. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS GUYS !!!

The selfie stick is the product of an art project by Moises, John Yuyi and Tom Galle, the creators of the real-world Netflix and Chill Room. The creators shared photos of the device on their website. “I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?” said Apple chief executive Tim Cook in January.

Get Social✌

CHINA CREATES FIRST LARGE PASSENGER AIRCRAFT.. .. YOU KNOW HOW CHINCO THINGS ARE 👏👏

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Meteor Exploded Above Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 6, NASA Says

These NASA people sound so incompetent, Earth was on fire 19 days ago and they are just telling us now.... Well read NASA statement

Th event was the largest atmospheric impact recorded since the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor in Russia, and released energy equivalent to the detonation of 13,000 tons of TNT, NASA said.

On Feb. 6, a large meteor exploded over the South Atlantic Ocean, and no one noticed. The meteor released 13 kilotons of energy while it burned in the atmosphere, close to the amount released by the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

It was the most powerful meteor to have entered the atmosphere since 3 years ago, when the 440 kiloton meteor exploded over the skies of Chelyabinsk, Russia. The sound from the Chelyabinsk was so loud that glass windows were shattered for miles around the blast region, and many people were injured.

On the other hand, because the Feb. 6 meteor blazed up over an area without inhabitants, it was first publicized by NASA employee Ron Balkee on Feb. 18, nearly two weeks after it hit the atmosphere.

Meteors of that size are rare. In all of 2015, for example, there was only one meteor that had released more than 1 kiloton of energy. NASA keeps a running list of all the meteors that blaze up in the atmosphere and become “fireballs.”

The list isn’t a comprehensive one of all the meteors that enter the atmosphere. That would be impossible to count. Everyday, more than 100 tons of meteoroids enter the earth’s atmosphere, most of it burning up before it becomes visible to the naked eye.

Facebook Launches Reactions Buttons Alongside Like button. You Really Have To See Them

 "Today is our worldwide launch of Reactions -- the new Like button with more ways to express yourself.
Not every moment you want to share is happy. Sometimes
you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don't like their posts. People wanted to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about the right way to do this with our team. One of my goals was to make it as simple as pressing and holding the Like button.
The result is Reactions, which allow you to express love, laughter, surprise, sadness or anger.
Love is the most popular reaction so far, which feels about right to me!"-------Mark Zuckerberg

 My opinion; Facebook thought a little too hard on this one. Likes were fine - you could have just added a dislike button, adding to that concept - the feature of disliking comments would have also been a plus 🤑 All we are left with now are android looking emoticons

If Facebook aren't going to add a dislike button because of bullying - then why add these "emoticons" at all, wasn't the one (like) click feature good enough in the first place?

Earth Will Experience 15 Days Of Complete Darkness in November 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEWSWATCH33) – NASA
has confirmed that the Earth will experience 15
days of total darkness between November 15 and
November 29, 2015. The event, according to
NASA, hasn’t occurred in over 1 Million years.
Astronomers from NASA have indicated that the
world will remain in complete darkness starting
on Sunday, November 15, 2015 at 3 a.m. and will
end on Monday, November 30, 2015 at 4:15 p.m.
According to officials, the ” November Black Out”
event will be caused by another astronomical
event between Venus and Jupiter.
Charles Bolden, who was appointed to head of
NASA by President Obama, issued a 1000 page
document explaining the event to the White
House. According to the report, on October 26,
2015, Venus and Jupiter will engage in a close
parallelism, only being separated by 1 degree.
Venus will pass to the southwest of Jupiter,
causing Venus to shine 10 times brighter than
Jupiter. The light from Venus will heat up the
gases on Jupiter causing a reaction.
The gaseous reaction will release an
unprecedented amount of Hydrogen into Space.
The Hydrogen gas will make contact with Earth’s
sun at approximately 2:50 a.m. The amass
amount of Hydrogen making contact with the sun
will cause a massive explosion on the Sun’s
surface. The explosions will cause the Sun’s
surface temperature to increase to 9,000 degrees
Kelvin in an instant. The sun will then attempt to
cease the explosions by emitting heat from its
core.
The heat will cause the Sun to dim to a bluish
color. Once the sun reaches the bluish color, it
will take approximately 14 days to restore its
normal surface temperature, returning its normal
color to the Red Giant. While the sun is cooling
the surface, the light from the sun will be much
dimmer. Because it takes anywhere from 7 to 8
and a half minutes depending on the Earth’s
rotation for light from the sun to hit Earth, people
will not know the event has happened until 2:58
a.m. on November 15th. Some areas of the world
may experience brief moments of light for 7 to 8
minutes, but the Earth will then go back to
complete darkness until the Sun’s surface
temperature has been restored. Bolden held a
conference with the Obama Administration to
discuss further details of the “Black Out” event.
According to Bolden, “We do not expect any major
effects from the Black Out event. The only effect
this event will have on Earth is an increase of 6
to 8 degrees in temperature. The polar cap will
not be majorly affected by this. No one should
worry much. This event would be similar to what
Alaskans experience in the winter. ” Bolden further
added, “The only other effect it will have is
everyone will get to have a true Black Friday after
Thanksgiving.
With 15 days of darkness ahead, one can only
imagine what will happen on Earth. Despite
NASA’s attempt to keep the public calm regarding
the black out, with that many days of darkness,
something is bound to happen. What will you do
during the 15 Days of Darkness? Use the hashtag
#NovemberBlackOut on social media to discuss
your feelings and plans about this major event.

Here’s how Mars looks like

     Over 100 images from a collection of 350 acquired by the Mars Colour Camera on the spacecraft have been compiled in a form of a scientific atlas. In its most daring missions to date, India successfully sent a spacecraft to orbit around Mars, making it the fourth space agency in the world and the first Asian country, to successfully send a mission to the red planet. According to the ISRO, "the knowledge acquired by the analysis of the data suggests enhanced possibility of the presence of life on this now dry and dusty planet."

Switzerland Bans Volkswagon Cars Sales Over Emissions

Switzerland has banned the sale of Volkswagen cars caught up in the emissions scandal. The government's ruling affects diesel models containing "defeat devices" – software able to change the engine's performance and run cleaner during official testing. As well as VW models which fall under the "euro 5" emissions category, other brands in the company's group, such as Seat and Skoda, are affected. However, the ban has been restricted to vehicles which are yet to be sold or registered, meaning Swiss motorists who currently own an affected car will not need to take action. New VW cars with "euro 6" engines are also immune from the ban, as they contain an updated emissions system.

Moon to turn Blood red before end of year....see interesting photos

Moon set to turn red in giant 'supermoon' lunar eclipse.Credit: PA Stargazers will be able to watch a once in 30 years phenomenon when a giant 'supermoon' turns red when

it combines with a lunar eclipse. The eclipse will start just after 1am on Monday morning, about 8pm in America (EDT). Scientists say the moon will swell by more than 14% and turn red as it falls under the shadow of the Earth. The last 'supermoon' lunar eclipse was in 1982. The so-called 'blood moon' is expected to last an hour an 11 minutes and will be visible in Europe, North and South America, Africa, parts of West Asia and the eastern Pacific. Weather permitting, the supermoon should be visible 1am, with the total eclipse starting at 3.11am. EDT, peaking at 3.47am.

A 'supermoon' happens when it comes closer to the earth called 'perigree'.Credit: Nasa Nasa scientists said that during a lunar eclipse, the moon appears less bright as sunlight is blocked by the Earth’s shadow. The moon does not make its own light, but reflects the light it receives from the sun. but as totality draws to its conclusion, sunlight reaches the moon indirectly and is refracted around the “edges” of Earth, through Ea

rth’s atmosphere. The moon will turn red as it falls into shadow.Credit: Nasa This means almost all colours except red are “filtered” out, and the eclipsed moon appears reddish or dark brown. The filtering is caused by particles in the earth's atmosphere, so if there have been a lot of fires or volcanic eruptions, lunar eclipses appear darker and redder. The eerie, but nonetheless harmless effect, has is nicknamed a “blood moon”. A Nasa satellite will watch it unfold.Credit: Nasa US space agency Nasa plans to stream the eclipse live from Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama. The Nasa live feedwill also broadcast views of the eclipse from the Griffith Observatory, the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Fernbank Observatory in Atlanta and other locations across the US. Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will wait as Earth blocks out the sun and the moon goes dark.

Checkout Lenovo Vibe S1 with two front cameras first of its kind in the world ...its expensive shaaa

 New Delhi: Smartphone giant lenovo has launched the first phone with two front facing cameras in world.

The two cameras are of Lenovo Vibe S1 have 8MP and 2MP resolution. The first one captures the image while the latter adds the depth-of-field effect to the image by blurring the background.

Such a setup is only seen in rear cameras by now.

“After taking a selfie with both cameras, there are various options to modify the selfie by selecting from a number of built-in photo editing tools. ‘Blur’ allows refocusing anywhere on the seflie (up to 3 focal plains) or adding a ‘bokeh’ effect to the backgro
und to stylize a selfie or simply to get rid of a photo bomber. With ‘Cut Out’, people can be cropped out of a selfie and then placed on any other image, and even on a photo taken with the rear camera of the Vibe S1 smartphone.” said Lenovo in an official statement.

At the ongoing IFA 2015 tech expo in Berlin, Lenovo has launched the world’s first smartphone with two front cameras for selfies.

Lenovo Vibe S1 smartphone sports a 5-inch full-HD (1080x1920) display and runs on Android 5.0 (Lollipop).For fast processing, the phone is powered by 64-bit octa-core MediaTek MT6752 processor and 3GB RAM, the phone comes with 32GB internal storage.

Users can slip in microSD cards of up to 128GB capacity for more storage space.

While the front camera setup of Vibe S1 is quite unique, Lenovo has gone with a pretty standard 13MP camera, backed by dual-tone flash, on the back. This metal-body smartphone measures 7.8mm in thickness, weighs 132 grams and packs a 2,50mAh battery. Lenovo Vibe S1 will be available in Pearl White and Midnight Blue colours and supports 4G connectivity.

Lenovo Vibe S1 will hit the market starting November at $299.  

Google's driverless cars scare pedestrians in Texas

 By the looks of things, Google's self-driving
cars have been learning a lot in Austin, Texas.
In its first report since it began testing
autonomous vehicles in the city, the company
details the challenges its cars have had to face
while driving on its roads. For instance, they've
been spotting and avoiding a lot of deer, some
of which might have ended up as road kill if
they happened to come across ordinary
vehicles instead. The system also had to learn
to identify new infrastructure, such as
horizontal traffic signals. Google has learned,
however, that one of the major problems it
has to tackle is pedestrians stepping off the
curb onto the road while hidden by other
vehicles.
On August 20th, a Lexus unit was rear ended
after spotting a person starting to cross the
road. See, its human driver took over to make
sure he doesn't end up harming anyone, but it
turns out -- based on the footage of the
incident -- that the accident wouldn't have
happened if he just allowed the car to brake on
its own. Clearly, Google's doing what it can to
achieve its original goal of developing
autonomous vehicles that can drive better than
humans. In addition to discussing what it has
learned in Austin, Mountain View has also
revealed through the report that it's deploying
more of its egg-like prototype models in the
city this September.Google

Disposable battery pack

The manufacture of Iphone  introduces disposable battery pack..

Ebola vaccine shows ‘promising’ results: WHO

Preliminary results of tests on an Ebola vaccine to be published in British science magazine The Lancet later Friday have shown "promising" results, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan said. "Early results of the vaccine are exciting and promising," Chan said, adding: "If they are confirmed it will change the management of the Ebola outbreak." More than 11,200 people have died in an Ebola epidemic in west Africa that began in late 2013 in Guinea and then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, infecting 27,700 people in the worst outbreak on record

Astronomers Have Discovered Eight Potentially Habitable Planets

Astronomers have announced that they have
discovered eight more planets that likely exist
in temperature ranges where life could exist.
The astronomers began their research path by
examining candidates for planets that had
been identified by NASA’s Kepler mission .
The candidates were analyzed using a
supercomputer running algorithms at NASA’s
Ames facility.
After exploring the statistical likelihood of the
planets’ existence, the team followed up with
months of observations using a variety of
different methods. The planets are distant
enough, however, that their habitabiliy is still
only a likelihood, not a certainty.
“We don’t know for sure whether any of the
planets in our sample are truly habitable,”
researcher David Kipping said in a statement.
“All we can say is that they’re promising
candidates.”
The two most potentially Earth-like planets of
the group of eight are Kepler-438b and
Kepler-442b, both of which circle red dwarf
stars are are respectively 70% and 97% likely
to be in the habitable temperature zones of
their respective stars. However, it should be
noted that there are serious issues regarding
the potential habitability of planets circling
red dwarf stars , so confirmation will require
significantly more study.
In addition to nearly doubling the potential
number of habitable planets, this latest
discovery also helps astronomers in a different
milestone. NASA announced this week that
the Kepler mission has helped astronomers
verify the discovery of over 1,000 planets
outside of our solar system. The mission has
also uncovered over 4,000 planetary
candidates.
“Each result from the planet-hunting Kepler
mission’s treasure trove of data takes us
another step closer to answering the question
of whether we are alone in the Universe,”
NASA associate administrator John Grunsfeld
said in a press release . “The Kepler team and
its science community continue to produce
impressive results with the data from this
venerable explorer.”
The researchers’ findings will be published in
The Astrophysical Journal .
   Related post;‘A Great Moment’: Rover Finds Clue That Mars May
 Harbor Life

‘A Great Moment’: Rover Finds Clue That Mars May Harbor Life

A year after reporting that NASA’s
Curiosity rover had found no evidence
of methane gas on Mars , all but
dashing hopes that organisms might
be living there now, scientists
reversed themselves on Tuesday.
Curiosity has now recorded a burst of
methane that lasted at least two
months.
For now, scientists have just two
possible explanations for the methane.
One is that it is the waste product of
certain living microbes

The scientists also reported that for
the first time, they had confirmed the
presence of carbon-based organic
molecules in a rock sample. The so-
called organics are not direct signs of
life, past or present, but they lend
weight to the possibility that Mars had
the ingredients required for life, and
may even still have them.
“This is really a great moment for the
mission,” Dr. Grotzinger told a news
conference here at the fall meeting of
the American Geophysical Union.
The presence of methane is significant
because the gas cannot exist for long.
Calculations indicate that sunlight and
chemical reactions in the Martian
atmosphere would break up the
molecules within a few hundred years,
so any methane there now must have
been created recently.
It could have been created by a
geological process known as
serpentinization, which requires both
heat and liquid water. Or it could be a
product of life in the form of microbes
known as methanogens, which release
methane as a waste product.
Even if the explanation for the
methane turns out to be geological, the
hydrothermal systems would still be
prime locations to search for signs of
life.
Scientists have always expected that
some tiny amount of methane would
be found on Mars. Cosmic dust falling
on the planet contains organic
compounds that are broken up by
ultraviolet light from the sun,
producing methane.
But the new findings, which are
described in detail in a paper this
week in the journal Science, are a 180-
degree flip from a year ago, when
mission scientists said that Curiosity
had found no signs of methane,
placing an upper limit of 1.3 parts per
billion by volume.
Since then, the scientists refined their
measurements, detecting a
background level of 0.7 parts per
billion. That is half of what was
predicted, raising another mystery
that somehow methane is also being
destroyed.
But in November 2013, two months
after the scientists reported the
absence of methane on Mars, the
rover measured methane levels 10
times as high. “It was an ‘oh my gosh’
moment,” said Christopher R. Webster
of the NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, the lead author of the
Science paper.
The methane levels stayed high
through at least the end of January.
They subsequently fell, to less than
one part per billion.
An earlier measurement in July had
also been high, although it dropped by
half a week later, and the margin of
error made it unclear what was going
on. Curiosity made no methane
measurements between July and
November 2013.
Sushil K. Atreya of the University of
Michigan, a member of the science
team, said it was possible that elevated
methane levels lasted from July
through January. “It could have been
over six months,” he said, “but we
don’t know that.”
Given its quick appearance and quick
disappearance, the newly discovered
methane was a relatively small burst,
mission scientists suspect.
A decade ago, three teams of scientists
reported that they had detected
methane in the Martian atmosphere —
two using observations from Earth ,
one using the European Space
Agency’s Mars Express orbiter.
All of the measurements were at the
edge of the instruments’ capabilities,
and the methane appeared to
disappear two years later. If true, that
meant not only that was something
creating methane on Mars, but also
that something else was quickly
destroying it.
Many Mars scientists decided that a
simpler solution to the methane
mystery was that the measurements
were mistaken, a conclusion bolstered
by the absence reported by the
Curiosity team last year.
Now, Dr. Grotzinger said, “It’s back on
the table.”
Michael J. Mumma of NASA’s Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.,
who led one of the teams that reported
much larger methane plumes in the
Mars atmosphere in 2003 based on
measurements from Earth — and has
found no methane since 2005 — said
the new data was “pleasant” after
years of doubts from critics.
The new Curiosity measurements
“confirmed this startling reality that
methane is being released,
sporadically, and it is being destroyed
quickly,” he said. “Both events are
surprising.”
As for the organic molecules, they
showed up in a mudstone nicknamed
Cumberland that Curiosity drilled in
May 2013.
Within Curiosity is a miniature
chemistry laboratory that detected
significant amounts of the organic
molecule chlorobenzene, in much
higher concentrations than had been
seen in other rocks it had examined.
Scientists spent months analyzing
whether the organic compounds came
from Cumberland or contamination
Curiosity had brought from Earth.
“You don’t want to be faked out,” Dr.
Grotzinger said.
The scientists are still unsure whether
Cumberland contained chlorobenzene,
which is not a naturally occurring
compound on Earth, or if that was the
end product of chemical reactions
involving other organic molecules in
the rock as it was heated. But they
convinced themselves that the organic
carbon is Martian.
“In part, Curiosity was built to explore
for organics,” Dr. Grotzinger said,
“and we found them.”

Posted by kenics and team

Posted by kenics and team