Mars Curiosity Rover finds methane trace of life

NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, has detected spikes of methane in the planet’s atmosphere. Is this the sign of life we’ve been looking for?

Hidden Universe 3D at IMAX .. Curiosity Rover With Laser Picture: Supplied

NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, has detected spikes of methane in the planet’s atmosphere. That suggests something is producing or venting the scientifically tantalising gas, but no one knows what.

Methane: It’s a gas that on Earth that comes mainly from living organisms.

Certified organics! I detected organics for the 1st time on the surface of Mars #AGU14 http://t.co/TsMs5LEW8b pic.twitter.com/AVk5Wxp5G0

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) December 16, 2014

It also seems to spike regularly in Mars’ atmosphere, but scientists have not been able to pinpoint the source, according to new research out today.

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The latest findings from NASA’s Curiosity rover, which has been exploring the Red Planet since it landed in 2012, were discussed at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, and published in the US journal Science.

Organic chemicals ... The first detection of Martian organic material has came from analysis by the Curiosity Mars rover of sample powder from this mudstone rock, “Cumberland.” Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

After poring over 20 months of data collected by the robotic vehicle, scientists found that methane on the dusty planet is far lower than expected, about half of what scientists thought they would detect from processes like the breakdown of dust and organic materials delivered by meteorites.

A change in the air: I detected a 10x spike of methane in Mars' atmosphere #AGU14 http://t.co/TsMs5LEW8b pic.twitter.com/v71ei8XDAx

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) December 16, 2014

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However, they also discovered that background levels of methane at Gale Crater, where the rover landed, “spiked about tenfold, sometimes over the course of just 60 Martian days, which was surprising because the gas is expected to have a lifetime of about 300 years,” said the Science report. Cooinciding with the report is news from NASA that organic chemicals have also been found in drilling samples of “mud” rocks.

Solitary selfie ... This self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was beamed back to Earth on December 16, 2014. Source: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS

“Their results suggest that methane is occasionally produced or vented near the Gale Crater — and that the gas disperses quickly once these episodes of venting or production cease,” it added.

Curiosity is not equipped to find out whether life currently exists on Mars, but the mission aims to uncover whether life ever arose there by looking for chemical elements that are the building blocks of life, including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulphur