{"id":28867,"date":"2022-02-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=28867"},"modified":"2022-03-23T13:14:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T13:14:15","slug":"carbon-yields-clues-about-ancient-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2022\/02\/10\/carbon-yields-clues-about-ancient-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon yields clues about ancient Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Past life on Mars could explain the low levels of carbon-13<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Curiosity\u2019s samples of ancient Martian rock, recovered from Gale crater, highlight the Red Planet\u2019s unusual carbon cycle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

After a decade <\/strong>examining the Martian surface, the Curiosity rover has now given an insight into the life of carbon on ancient Mars, hinting at which geological \u2013 and perhaps even biological \u2013 processes shaped the planet.<\/p>\n\n

The rover has been measuring the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 on the planet, a value set during the Solar System\u2019s creation, but which changes over time due to all manner of geological, biological and cosmic processes. Curiosity found several areas of depleted carbon-13. There are three possible explanations: Mars passed through a Galactic cloud which deposited the carbon; ultraviolet radiation broke apart carbon dioxide in <\/span>the atmosphere; or, ancient microbes produced and consumed methane.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cAll three possibilities point to an unusual carbon cycle, unlike anything on Earth today,\u201d says Christopher House from Penn State University, who led the study. \u201cBut we need more data to figure out which of these is the correct explanation.\u201d www.psu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Past life on Mars could explain the low levels of carbon-13<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":28866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"13","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"13","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_13-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_13-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_external_id":"March-2022-13-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"March-2022-13-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086550||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086550||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.202","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.202","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.202","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.202","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/34b7779c-1741-47ed-be45-bfd6aba7df62.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/34b7779c-1741-47ed-be45-bfd6aba7df62.jpg",1505,1055,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/34b7779c-1741-47ed-be45-bfd6aba7df62-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/34b7779c-1741-47ed-be45-bfd6aba7df62-300x210.jpg",300,210,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/34b7779c-1741-47ed-be45-bfd6aba7df62-768x538.jpg",768,538,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/34b7779c-1741-47ed-be45-bfd6aba7df62-1024x718.jpg",800,561,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/34b7779c-1741-47ed-be45-bfd6aba7df62.jpg",1505,1055,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/02\/34b7779c-1741-47ed-be45-bfd6aba7df62.jpg",1505,1055,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Past life on Mars could explain the low levels of carbon-13","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28867"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29446,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28867\/revisions\/29446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}