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Could Dust Devils Create Methane in Mars’ Atmosphere?
A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) high captured on March 14, 2012 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA
Methane on Mars has long perplexed scientists; the short-lived gas has been measured in surprising quantities in Mars’ atmosphere over several seasons, sometimes in fairly large plumes. Scientists have taken this to be evidence of Mars being an ‘active’ planet, either geologically or biologically. But a group of researchers from Mexico have come up with a different – and rather unexpected – source of methane: dust storms and dust devils.
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Read the rest of Could Dust Devils Create Methane in Mars’ Atmosphere? (679 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Dust Devils, Dust Storms on Mars, Mars, Methane
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2012-09-10 16:11:23
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/97280/could-dust-devils-create-methane-in-mars-atmosphere/
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