Article New Scientist, avec le titre : 'Alien burp' may have been detected by NASA's Curiosity rover
https://www.livescience.com/curiosity-f ... ource.html
A group of scientists may have just pinpointed the location on Mars of a mysterious source of methane, a gas most often produced by microbes — and NASA's Curiosity rover could be right on top of it.
Methane blips have pinged on Curiosity's detection systems six times since the rover landed in Mars' Gale crater in 2012, but scientists weren't able to find a source for them. Now, with a new analysis, researchers may have traced the methane burps to their origin.
To calculate the unknown methane source, researchers at the California Institute of Technology modeled the methane gas particles by splitting them into discrete packets. Taking into account the wind speed and direction at the time of their detection, the team traced their parcels of methane back through time to their possible points of emission. By doing this for all of the different detection spikes, they were able to triangulate regions where the methane source is most likely located — with one being just a few dozen miles away from the rover.
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This prospect is thrilling for scientists, as almost all of the methane in Earth's atmosphere has biological origins, according to the researchers, so that a signature on Mars could be a key signpost for finding life on the ostensibly desolate planet.
Even if the methane is being produced by non-biological processes, it could point to geological activity closely tied to the presence of liquid water — a vital ingredient for past or present life to thrive.
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Bon, c'est pas pour ça qu'on trouvera effectivement de la vie microbienne émettrice de méthane (comme le dit l'article, l'origine peut être non biologique), mais je trouve toujours ça passionnant. Ceci dit, 12 miles (19,3 kms), c'est loin pour un engin qui n'a parcouru que 25 kms en 9 ans...
