But, Finding Clues of Life There Gets Harder

The news this week that Mars has water bound up in its soil fulfills at least one of the goals of the Mars Curiosity mission: to find evidence of water. It’s one more checkmark in the “search for evidence of life” column, and it came after one of the first tests to look for water by the roving science lab. Curiosity’s ChemCam shot lasers at samples of soil and sediments it scooped up on the surface of Mars. The laser testing turned up high amounts of hydrogen, which is indicative of water in bound up in the soils.

This is great news because it really clinches the idea that Mars has water. In the past it had lots more, likely flowing across the surface. These days, Mars water is locked inside rocks and sediments, and makes up a frozen subsurface layer similar to permafrost here on Earth. Future Martian explorers who make their homes on Mars should theoretically be able to heat those rocks and distill water out of them to aid in their long-term survival.

The next item on the tickbox of successful Mars exploration will be to find evidence of life. However, another finding released this week proves that it’s tougher to provide that evidence than people thought. That’s because the Martian surface sediments are permeated with the chemical compound perchlorate, and it interferes with the tests that Curiosity does to look for traces of past life.

Perchlorate is a salt made up of chlorine and oxygen. When it’s part of the soil that Curiosity tests, perchlorate causes another chemical reaction that actually destroys carbon—and carbon is part of all living beings that we know about on Earth. If life existed on Mars, then it’s logical to assume it would also contain carbon. And, when an organism dies, it leaves behind carbon traces. So, the presence of perchlorates makes testing for life much trickier. In fact, that presence will likely cause scientists to change their methods and techniques as they search for the chemical remains of past life on Mars.

Mars is turning out to be a very intriguing study target for planetary scientists. It’s a puzzle, but one that we’ll eventually solve, particularly when we send people to the Red Planet to do direct investigations.

Want to know more about these findings?  Read about the water discovery here and the perchlorate work here.

We are Losing the Dark

I live in a dark-sky area. Or, mostly dark-sky, since the light pollution from nearby Denver and the Front Range seep over the mountains and blot out the eastern horizon. It used to be that humans had unfettered access to the night sky. Now, we have to try and see the stars through a growing haze of light shining upwards. Why do we shine light UP?  Why light up the sky?  It’s totally unnecessary, particularly when what we want to light up is on the ground, not in the sky. Every year we waste billions of dollars in lighting up the sky. That’s a lot of fossil fuel to be burned and wasted, fuel that could be better used elsewhere.

There are reasons to light things up at night, no question about it. But, the sky isn’t one of those things. And, overuse of light not only costs more money, it affects the health of people and wildlife. Lights at night affect people’s ability to sleep, which is a primary component of good health. There is also growing medical evidence that extra light at night plays a role in a higher risk of breast and prostate cancer in people who are exposed to it. In addition, wildlife suffers from our overweening reliance on sending light UP to the sky. The environmental cost is incredibly high. And, it doesn’t have to be that way. We can learn to use light properly and still maintain safety and security.

The solutions to light pollution actually start with each of us:  we have it in our power to make sure our lighting around our homes and in our towns is not facing UP. We can use fully shielded fixtures which actually help save money. We can also properly light ONLY the places that need it. And, if we don’t need the lights on, we can simply turn them off. Saves money and our health.

The International Dark-Sky Association is the world’s premier light pollution mitigation organization and the group has an amazing amount of free information on their web site that anyone can access interested in mitigating light use. One of the things they have is a video that I co-produced for them, called Losing the Dark, available as a free download for planetariums and also as a flat-screen HD for use on computers, kiosks, in auditoriums, classrooms and other venues equipped with a video projector.  In the months since its February 2013 release, the videos have gotten a great deal of attention on IDA’s Youtube channel and also on the Loch Ness Productions Youtube channel. Many planetariums (both fulldome video and classic theaters) have gotten the show.  It’s a six-minute look at light pollution and what we can do to mitigate it.

Recently IDA posted a survey about how people are using the video. If you have downloaded it, they’d love to hear from you about how you use it, and so on. It’s a short, confidential survey and well worth the couple of minutes