“Methane and a sign of Life in the Red Planet”

This picture shows a lab demonstration of the measurement chamber inside the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, an instrument that is part of the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation on NASA's Curiosity rover

Currently, NASA’s Curiosity rover has uncovered the fact that the Martian environment is lacking methane, even though previous research indicated positive detections. After extensive experiments in the Martian environment this gas has not been found, which as of now is of great interest for the scientists because of its relation to the idea of potential signs of life. According to Michael Meyer, NASA’s lead scientist for Mars exploration, “this important result will help direct our efforts to examine the possibility of life on Mars”. From October of 2012 through June of this year, the Curiosity analyzed the atmosphere six times. Given the fact that no gas has been detected, scientists estimate that there is no more 1.3 part per billion of methane within the atmosphere. Previous reports showed concentrations up to 45 parts per billion, which was what originally sparked the idea of a biological source on Mars, on the other hand, current experiments have shown otherwise. The University of Michigan, released an article where one the authors affirms that according with these methane measurements, “there is no mechanism, whether it be biological, geological or simply the degradation of organic material from meteorites” to support huge amounts of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Still, the Curiosity rover remains studying the Red Planet, in hopes of finding some ground breaking evidence leading to the assertion of a habitable environment.

By: Adrian Gonzalez, Maribel Alberto, and Mileidy Gonzalez