There will be a total Solar Eclipse Tuesday July 2nd in Chile and Argentina. The Exploratorium in San Francisco will cover the eclipse live from Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile at Exploratorium.edu/eclipse. The next total eclipse in North America will take place in April, 2024.

Aphelion: Earth will reach its greatest distance from the sun this year on Independence Day July 4 at 4pm. 94,507,880 miles vs 91,403,180 miles on January 3 this year.

Last week, data from atmospheric sampling on Curiosity indicated a methane outgassing of biblical proportions on Mars, the largest ever detected; 21 parts per billion…three times larger than the last seen burp. While it’s exciting to find extraterrestrial organic compounds, and tempting to jump to a biochemical process of origin, Mars is covered with the right rocks, trace water and heat for a non-organic geochemical accounting for this observation. Whereas there is no evidence whatsoever of the current existence or past existence of life on Mars that could be responsible for a metabolic biochemical process of methane production.