A ‘perpetually Anxious’ Photographer Seeks A Sense Of Order

Two Steps Forward in the Search for Life on Mars

We haven’t found aliens but we are a little further along in our search for life on Mars thanks to two recent discoveries from our Curiosity Rover.

We detected organic molecules at the harsh surface of Mars! And what’s important about this is we now have a lot more certainty that there’s organic molecules preserved at the surface of Mars. We didn’t know that before.

One of the discoveries is we found organic molecules just beneath the surface of Mars in 3 billion-year-old sedimentary rocks.

Second, we’ve found seasonal variations in methane levels in the atmosphere over 3 Mars years (nearly 6 Earth years). These two discoveries increase the chances that the record of habitability and potential life has been preserved on the Red Planet despite extremely harsh conditions on the surface.

Both discoveries were made by our chem lab that rides aboard the Curiosity rover on Mars.

Here’s an image from when we installed the SAM lab on the rover. SAM stands for “Sample Analysis at Mars” and SAM did two things on Mars for this discovery.

One - it tested Martian rocks. After the arm selects a sample of pulverized rock, it heats up that sample and sends that gas into the chamber, where the electron stream breaks up the chemicals so they can be analyzed.

What SAM found are fragments of large organic molecules preserved in ancient rocks which we think come from the bottom of an ancient Martian lake. These organic molecules are made up of carbon and hydrogen, and can include other elements like nitrogen and oxygen. That’s a possible indicator of ancient life…although non-biological processes can make organic molecules, too.

The other action SAM did was ‘sniff’ the air.

When it did that, it detected methane in the air. And for the first time, we saw a repeatable pattern of methane in the Martian atmosphere. The methane peaked in the warm, summer months, and then dropped in the cooler, winter months.

On Earth, 90 percent of methane is produced by biology, so we have to consider the possibility that Martian methane could be produced by life under the surface. But it also could be produced by non-biological sources. Right now, we don’t know, so we need to keep studying the Mars!

One of our upcoming Martian missions is the InSight lander. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to give the Red Planet its first thorough checkup since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. It is the first outer space robotic explorer to study in-depth the “inner space” of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core.

Finding methane in the atmosphere and ancient carbon preserved on the surface gives scientists confidence that our Mars 2020 rover and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) ExoMars rover will find even more organics, both on the surface and in the shallow subsurface.

Read the full release on today’s announcement HERE. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.  

Wannabe

Canal house un loft disenado for Wetteveen Architects.

The Art of Helena Georgiou

Helena Georgiou, a Cypriot photographer known for her collection of ordinary people has a large collection of minimal photography.

“My photos come from my deep passion for creativity and details,” says Helena. “Through them, I express my feelings and also attempt to bring my experiences from my trips, thoughts. My greatest influences, however, are poetry and literature. I believe the most important quality of a photograph, as in all of art, is its ability to evoke an emotional response.”

Harold Lloyd puts the cherry on top in Speedy, 1928

Architectural Collages Depict the Fragmented Lives of Migrants

Architecture student Evan Wakelin has produced drawings that juxtapose the old and new homes of migrants in Toronto, to convey the emotional and physical upheaval these people experience. Wakelin’s thesis research project is part of his ongoing studies at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, where he is enrolled on the Master of Architecture course.

“The drawings illustrate hypothetical migrations to the city, whereby the original home of the migrant is layered with their current home within the city of Toronto,” explained Wakelin in his thesis research paper. “This intersection of past and present, over different geographical locations, describes a divided identity where the sense of belonging and sentiment exist somewhere in between.”

Check out this tumblr!

Images and text via

Retro Optical on We Heart It.

The City: A Formalist View of American Urban Architecture William W. Fuller

A 35 year photography project on architecture in great American cities culminates in the first book of William W. Fuller fine-art large format B&W work. His work captures the urban thread of our cities in clean black and white images, emphasizing the play of light and dark, texture and patterns, building and sky. 

Images via text via

The Forgotten Pyramids Of Sudan. Bagrawiyah, Sudan