Ever since Curiosity landed on Mars , it has beenin search of methane . It could n’t come up any for year , until a new set of experimentsunveiled todaythat detected large spikes in methane . Scientists have no estimation what caused the spikes , but the most intriguing explanation is “ living on Mars . ”
Much of the methane on Earth hail from microbes extravasate the gasolene into the atmosphere . NASA scientists admonish there are still non - biological explanations for methane on Mars , such as ultraviolet radiation causing chemical reaction on Mars ’s surface or trap methane being released from lattices of ice rink .
receive methane was not easy for Curiosity and its scientists . Although other missionary work have found trace amount of methane in the Martian air before , Curiosity had been ineffectual to discover the gas because — as we now bonk — backcloth levels were just a bit too gloomy for the rover ’s instruments . Instead , asLee Billings at Scientific American explains , Curiosity had to unclothe carbon paper dioxide out of its gas sample to heighten the humble amount of money of background methane .
As the bird of passage journey across Mars over two months , its legal instrument also found four transient spikes in methane , about ten times the backdrop tier . These spikes suggest a reference , but a still mysterious one at that . To get to the bottom of these bursts of methane , we may have to wait for the next Martian rover in 2020 . [ NASA , Scientific American ]
Mars
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