NASA’s Mars Rover, named Curiosity, has recently discovered high amounts of methane gas in the atmosphere of the planet. The organization has not officially announced the news yet, but the data which arrived on Thursday has caused quite a stir among the scientists at NASA.
The scientist in charge of the mission, Ashwin Vasavada, has stated that a follow-up experiment is in the works in light of this recent data. The information in an email from Vasada was shared with The New York Times. On Friday, mission controllers sent some instructions to the Curiosity rover to prioritize the methane readings over previously scheduled activities. New data relating to the gas levels should be arriving on Earth by Monday.
Although people had been excited about finding life on Mars, the first rovers that landed on the planet in the ’70s revealed a dead, dry landscape. Over the decades, scientists have become more skeptical about the possibility that life exists or was present on Mars in the past. Some scientists believe that life, if it ever existed on Mars, was present in the distant past when the planet was warm enough to have liquid water and a more hospitable atmosphere. According to some theories, Mars was most likely to have supported life forms approximately 4 billion years ago.
In light of recent findings, scientists are considering the possibility that the ancient life forms that may have thrived on the surface 4 billion years ago were forced to retreat deep under ground after the planet became too cold and dry to support life, and this could be the source of the methane gas that is being emitted into the planet’s atmosphere.
The presence of methane gas is a compelling piece of evidence for life on Mars because the gas must have been produced relatively recently. This is due to the fact that methane gas does not persist very long in the air because it breaks down in the presence of sunlight and various other chemicals in the atmosphere. Therefore, the methane gas must have been emitted from the planet within recent centuries, which is a very short time in relation to planetary history. Because of this fact, it means that any life forms that produced methane gas are likely to be currently alive somewhere on or under the surface of Mars.
