Episode 09: Life on Mars?

A few weeks ago NASA gathered journalists from across the globe for an announcement about something they'd found on Mars. Naturally, the collective imagination went nuts, because surely, SURELY this was going to be The Big Announcement: finally, the discovery of Life Elsewhere In The Universe!

Turns out, nope ... not quite. NASA did have some very cool things to talk about. Curiosity, the Mars Rover that just keeps on keeping on, has found seasonal changes in methane levels, which could be produced by biological mechanisms. It also found a bunch of interesting organic molecules in the martian soil. Neither of these discoveries say that life ever existed on Mars, but they're both tantalising whispers urging us to keep looking, keep looking ...

SHOW NOTES

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

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Emily at the University of York: www.york.ac.uk/physics/people/brunsden/
Chris online: kipstewart.com 

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Some of the things we talk about in this episode: