Since it landed on the Red Planet , NASA ’s Curiosity bird of passage has been explore the Gale volcanic crater in search of clue that will explicate how the Martian landscape has changed over time . The rover has now discover a spike heel of methane in the standard pressure of Mars , sustain previous elusive observations of methane that could not be readily explained for decades . While this sure does not imply evidence of life , the discovery of organic molecules is middling exciting and will facilitate guide succeeding study of the Martian atmosphere . The results of the study were published inScience .
The report utilized reading hold over the trend of almost two years using the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite ’s tunable laser spectrometer . The average methane denseness is pretty stable at 0.7 character per billion by mass ( ppbv ) , though there were spikes that brought the amount up to 7 ppbv . This fluctuation is about ten times majuscule than normal , which is specially odd yield that calculator clay sculpture of atmospherical methane predicted that it would have been fairly undifferentiated .
Along with methane immersion , the investigator also used a rooms of instruments to measure and correct for humidity , temperature , and fluctuation in the atmospheric state . Ultimately , they found that these ear of methane die hard .
" Within this context , and when we were all almost fully persuaded that the data we had so far collected were at the very least fierce it not fully invalid , the expectations to settle on this were bestowed upon the content of the SAM legal document to come up with more precise measurements , ” co - author Francisco Javier Martín - Torres from the University of Granada said in apress outlet .
Methane is a common byproduct of biologic processes , but that is not the only way it is created . The bearing of methane alone is not enough to say that living survive , or once existed , on Mars . However , it is still not clear where the methane is coming from . Future research will postulate to ascertain the origin of the methane as well as further investigate why it has stiletto heel in certain areas .
“ It is a finding that puts pay to the question of the comportment of methane in the Martian air , but it does pose some other more complex and far - make head , such as the nature of its sources — which must dwell , we believe , in one or two additional sources that were not primitively contemplated in the models used so far . Among these source , we must not rule out biological methanogenesis , ” Martín - Torres concluded . “ Another new interrogative sentence is related to the flakey evolution of methane in the Martian atmosphere after its discharge . Both questions should be addressed in the future with specifically designed young research . ”
