Somebody farted on Mars!!Curiosity Found Spikes In Methane That Could Signal Life On Mars

[thesolar65]

Ever since Curiosity landed on Mars, it has been in search of methane. It couldn’t find any for years, until a new set of experiments unveiled today that detected large spikes in methane. Scientists have no idea what caused the spikes, but the most intriguing explanation is “life on Mars.”

Much of the methane on Earth comes from microbes belching the gas into the atmosphere. NASA scientists caution there are still non-biological explanations for methane on Mars, such as ultraviolet radiation causing chemical reactions on Mars’s surface or trapped methane being released from lattices of ice.

Finding methane was not easy for Curiosity and its scientists. Although other missions have found trace amounts of methane in the Martian atmosphere before, Curiosity had been unable to detect the gas because — as we now know — background levels were just a bit too low for the rover’s instruments. Instead, as Lee Billings at Scientific American explains, Curiosity had to strip carbon dioxide out of its gas samples to enhance the small amounts of background methane.

As the rover traveled across Mars over two months, its instruments also found four transient spikes in methane, about ten times the background level. These spikes suggest a source, 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.

Curiosity Found Spikes In Methane That Could Signal Life On Mars | Gizmodo Australia

 

[TimeTraveller]

I heard from a number of people that India is wasting money on space program and MOM(Mars orbiter mission) is a complete failure because one of its objective is to search for methane which SOME PEOPLE says that there is no sign of methane on Mars.... So where are these people now.....?........

 

[Levina]

I read that the low background level of methane could be explained by the Sun’s rays degrading organic material possibly deposited by meteors. But since the spikes of methane required an additional source it was unlikely to be by a recent comet or asteroid impact. Such an object would have had to measure several metres across and would have left a large crater when there's no such sign.
NASA also said that it was unlikely that the gas was released from volcanic deposits trapped in ice called clathrates. Nor did it appear to come from the release of gaseous methane that had become bound to the soil.
The hypothesis is “methanogenesis” – the formation of methane by microbial bugs known as methanogens.

 

[Echo_419]

I read that the low background level of methane could be explained by the Sun’s rays degrading organic material possibly deposited by meteors. But since the spikes of methane required an additional source it was unlikely to be by a recent comet or asteroid impact. Such an object would have had to measure several metres across and would have left a large crater when there's no such sign.
NASA also said that it was unlikely that the gas was released from volcanic deposits trapped in ice called clathrates. Nor did it appear to come from the release of gaseous methane that had become bound to the soil.
The hypothesis is “methanogenesis” – the formation of methane by microbial bugs known as methanogens.

Are you saying this gas release could be from Martians

 

[Levina]

Are you saying this gas release could be from Martians

Lol not me, those were NASA's words.

 

[dray]

Now poor Martians can't even fart peacefully in their own planet!!

 

[Levina]

Now poor Martians can't even fart peacefully in their own planet!!

Oh gaawd!!

Its some microbial bugs.

 

[dray]

Oh gaawd!!

Its some microbial bugs.

Hence they don't have any 'microbial bug rights' ? It's their planet, we have no right to humiliate those poor methanogens in public like that. This must be very embarrassing for them.

 

[ranjeet]

 

[Levina]

This is what we humans imagine...but martians 're actually tiny lil microbial bugs.

 

[ranjeet]

This is what we humans imagine...but martians 're actually tiny lil microbial bugs.

Its no laughing matter girl
They blowing hot air up there ... MOM must have taught some manners to them lil bugs !!!

 

[StormShadow]

 

[Dem!god]

I heard from a number of people that India is wasting money on space program and MOM(Mars orbiter mission) is a complete failure because one of its objective is to search for methane which SOME PEOPLE says that there is no sign of methane on Mars.... So where are these people now.....?........

no scientific endeavor can ever be a waste, how small or trivial it may be, even though we are doing it nth time after nasa, EU, russis but it was we who did it, and its a extraordinary fleet we achieved... though all the sensor weigh only 15 kg and nothing is new but we can surely verify the data of other space agency, if its true or not..more over we gained experience in inter planetary missions, which was very important...
one thing i would like to add is that.. methane was always known on mars, but mostly of volcanic origin.. now if this methane if confirmed to be of living organism origin, then it will be a breakthrough, may be one of the biggest in human history proving extra terrestrial life..