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Dec 22, 2014
The Mysterious Methane of Mars
Image Credit & Copyright: Astronomy Picture of the Day -- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
The Mysterious Methane of Mars
Image Credit & Copyright: Astronomy Picture of the Day -- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
What's creating methane on Mars?
Recent measurements from the robotic
Curiosity rover
currently rolling across Mars indicate a
surprising 10-fold increase in atmospheric
methane
between measurements only months apart.
Life is a major
producer of methane on Earth, and so speculation is rampant that some sort of
life --
possibly microbial life -- is creating
methane beneath the surface of Mars.
Other possibilities do exist, though, with a leading model being the sudden release of
methane
produced by the mixing of specific soil chemicals with underground water.
Proposed origins of Martian methane are depicted in the
featured illustration.
The origin of Mars' methane is a very active area of research,
with missions like
Curiosity and India's Mars Orbiter Mission searching for clues by measuring methane abundance changes and possible byproducts of different methane-producing processes.