On Vikings, Phoenix, Mars, and Life

Ya something new everyday, and so does NASA.  There's something to be said for going back and taking another look at past research.

It turns out that the ORGANIC chemicals - chloromethane and dichloromethane - found in Martian soil samples from the Phoenix lander were ALSO found in soil samples from the Atacama desert in Chile.  However, these chemicals were only discovered in the Chilean soil AFTER a little perchlorate was added to the soil.

chloromethane

This discovery nixes the previous belief that chloromethane and dichloromethane are the only organics present on Mars.   Perchlorate is now believed to exist.

The next missions will be able to test this theory further with the use of the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument (SAM) attached to the Curiosity rover.

dichloromethane

perchlorate

While this discovery does not yield knowledge to the presence of LIFE on Mars, every bit of discovery get us one step further towards understanding the biological history of the red planet.

Curiosity rover

lllater - M

Google understands

Google gets it.  Yeah, Google Maps is good for finding where that new doughnut shop is, but what about the big dipper?  They understand that us astronomy/planetary science nerds needs a little directional help sometimes too.

They have made it possible for kids like Jonathan Tomshine to produce websites like Dark Sky Finder, which tell you what the light pollution is like in the area you want to see some starts, comets, meteor showers, planets, spaceships, satellites...yanno the like.



It's pretty cool AND simple.  Just use it like you would Google Maps, moving the toggles to the place you want to watch the stars.  I have made a place marker for the POSSE meeting location on the UT campus.

Enjoy your star watching!




Cheers - M

FIRST POSSE MEETING OF THE SEMESTER

Helloooooooo everybody in the planetary science world!

This is it.  It's time.  Time to party.

And by party I mean have a POSSE meeting and talk about Mars, research, robots, and astronauts. WEEEE!

We will have Dr. Mark Helper giving his talk on “Robotic Mapping and Human Field Studies at Haughton Impact Crater, Canada”.  Here's the link to awesomeness.  His research is pretty amazing, ranging from working at NASA Ames to training astronauts in New Mexico.  Also, for your refreshment and eating pleasure, we will provide beverages and Don Juan tacos from Juan in a Million.  Hope to see you all there!

When: 9.8.10 @ 5:15 p.m.

Where: JGB 2.218

Cheers,

M