Nobody knows what’s creating oxygen on Mars

BGR ^ | 13 November 2019 | Mike Wehner

[ShadowAce]

NASA’s Curiosity rover returned some seriously surprising data to Earth earlier this year, with readings of elevated methane levels that were hard to explain. Subsequent tests attempted to pin down the cause of the higher-than-expected readings but scientists have yet to come up with a definitive answer.

Now, as questions about methane continue to swirl, scientists studying the behavior of gasses on Mars have noticed that oxygen on the Red Planet also acts much differently than it does on Earth. The observations were made in the Gale Crater, which the rover has called home since it landed there back in 2012.

Curiosity “breathes” the air on Mars and analyzes it to determine the levels of various types of gasses that are present. On Earth, the background levels of certain gasses rise and fall with seasons, and the same seems to be true on Mars, but only to a point.

The air on Mars is largely carbon dioxide. In fact, a full 95% of the gas Curiosity breathes in during its tests is CO2. The remaining 5% is a mix of nitrogen, argon, oxygen, and carbon monoxide. By plotting levels of these gasses over the course of a full Martian year, scientists have noticed anomalies with regard to the amount of oxygen, relative to other gasses.

NASA explains:

Within this environment, scientists found that nitrogen and argon follow a predictable seasonal pattern, waxing and waning in concentration in Gale Crater throughout the year relative to how much CO2 is in the air. They expected oxygen to do the same. But it didn’t. Instead, the amount of the gas in the air rose throughout spring and summer by as much as 30%, and then dropped back to levels predicted by known chemistry in fall.

The fact that the oxygen levels vary as wildly as they do is significant because it hints at as-of-yet undiscovered processes at work on the surface of the planet. For the oxygen levels to see a significant upward spike and then a dramatically fall, something must be creating it and then another something is using it.

“We’re struggling to explain this,” Melissa Trainer of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center says. “The fact that the oxygen behavior isn’t perfectly repeatable every season makes us think that it’s not an issue that has to do with atmospheric dynamics. It has to be some chemical source and sink that we can’t yet account for.”

Before you start dreaming of a subterranean race of Martian monsters, it’s important to know that this isn’t a smoking gun for life on Mars. In fact, it’s far from it. There are natural processes that can generate oxygen in the absence of life, and since we have yet to find evidence of life on the Red Planet, yet can’t rule it out, scientists are considering all possible options.

[steve86]

Elemental oxygen vs. molecular oxygen.

[JimRed]

Assuming (as a non-scientist) that the red predominating on Mars is iron oxide, could some force be liberating the oxygen from its bond with the iron atoms?

[samtheman]

anytime

[bgill]

Send Sheila up there to straighten the flag and maybe she’ll find out about the oxygen.

[CrazyIvan]

“Nothing creates Oxygen. It is an element.
That requires a nuclear furnace.”

Thanks for screwing up a perfectly good thread with facts.

[outofsalt]

"scientists studying the behavior of gasses on Mars have noticed that oxygen on the Red Planet also acts much differently than it does on Earth."

When you put a lit match close to a Martians butt...Uh, nevermind.

[red-dawg]

So Climate Change is happening on Mars too?

And no humans are present??

[T. Rustin Noone]

I’m wondering of a hardy, primitive form of plant life, such as lichens, might survive?

[butlerweave]

In Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) oxygen came from rocks when he heated them but to heat them there must have been oxygen , ,LOL movies

[Reily]

For that movie Mars was believed to have a similar atmosphere plus O2 content as Mt Everest or something of similar altitude. So starting a fire could happen, hard to do but could be done!

[The Westerner]

Actually well-written and quite fascinating. Thank God no one can claim mankind caused this one, unless they assert that the Rover is doing it!

[Tax-chick]

Ahem.

[Calvin Locke]

Alas, “Batman” didn’t land too well in that movie, iirc.

[PIF]

Common earthy plants breathe CO2 and exhale Oxygen, no nuclear furnace required

[PIF]

Not a fact - without molecular oxygen we would all die, and its that form of oxygen the post is referencing

[Repeal The 17th]

“...plants breathe CO2 and exhale Oxygen...”
-
In your example, there was already “O” in the “CO2”.

[Wonder Warthog]

"....but to heat them there must have been oxygen...."

Electrical resistance heating driven by solar cells. No oxygen needed.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ShadowAce. It's almost as if Thomas Gold were correct.

Highly oxidized iron is abundant on Mars, and very small-grained magnetite can then be expected to be one of the accumulated residues of microbial processes; so can iron sulfide and methane-derived carbonates. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are the large molecules that might remain in a rock that originally contained crude oil but then was exposed for millions of years to the high vacuum of space. All these substances have been found in the discovery meteorite, closely packaged to each other, and this by itself would make a strong case for the microbial interpretation. In addition, there are small objects seen under scanning electron microscopy that may well be fossils of microbes. While the last item by itself would not be conclusive evidence, the combination of this together with oil and the three residue products make a strong case for the microbial explanation. It is true that each step can occur without biological intervention, but the chance of finding by chance the evidence for all three solids in a small volume, together with hydrocarbons, seems to be very low. Many terrestrial oil and gas wells show just such an association (but an association with helium also, which the meteorite could not have transported through space).

Thomas Gold | Life on other Planets | May 1997

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