Methane on Mars?

mbone writes "Two independent groups are claiming the detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere, one using the Mars Express orbiter, and the other using ground based telescopes. This detection, if confirmed, would be of great significance for the search of life on Mars, as Methane will not last long in the Martian atmosphere and thus must be renewed, presumably either by biological processes or by volcanic vents, which would be a good place for life to develop. The leader of the ground based astronomy team, Michael Mumma of the Goddard Space Flight Center, when asked if the methane was biological in origin, said 'I think it is, myself personally.'"

Comments

Existence

[Justifiable_Delusion]

It is slowly coming closer. The day we actually find that source of life on another planet. It is beautiful and logical and perfectlly of sense to understand and grasp that we will some day find life, but the day we actually do discover it. That will be an amazing day simply for the achievement. Though anything we find on mars will be very simple (single celled things? bactiera? virii?) it will nonetheless be something.

It is life.

Re:Existence

[IamGarageGuy 2]

Don't get too excited just yet. Wouldn't want all the UFO nuts to get all jumpy from the discovery of methane. We still know very little about how or why it is there. This is fascinating stuff but the whole reason is not to just find life on another planet. There are tons of things to explore on mars and I think that if we get into this loop of only looking for life we may miss some other things that will be discovered.

Re:Existence

[BiggerIsBetter]

I'm getting the impression we're being slowly eased into the concept of life on Mars. I mean, how long did it take for them to even confirm it was once wet? And although we've sent several probes to Mars, we're detecting methane by telescope from Earth? Maybe my tinfoil fat needs adjusting, but something is wrong with this picture...

Re:Existence

[sbaker]

When (and I think it's a matter of 'when' - not 'if') we find simple life on Mars, the implications of it depend critically on which of four likely possibilities it is:

1) Life originated only on Earth and travelled to Mars in an ejected rock. This would be just *boring*.

2) Life originated on Mars and travelled to Earth in an ejected rock like the famous Mars meteorite. We are all Martians? Well, there's an interesting thought.

3) Life originated somewhere else and travelled to both Mars and Earth by one of these mechanisms. Panspermia. Life would be very likely to exist throughout the galaxy in every niche you could imagine.

4) Life originated quite differently and separately on Earth and Mars. Woahh! Now *that* is a deep thought.

It seems likely to me that Scientists (being careful people) will start off with assumption (1). It would be hard to tell the difference between (1)/(2) and (3) without going off to mine some comets that have never been close enough to Earth or Mars to pick up a stray life-bearing meteorite. It would be hard to imagine any test that would distinguish between (1) and (2).

So it'll come down to (1)/(2)/(3) versus (4). If it's (4), I'd expect us to be able to see that pretty easily - eg: Totally different fundamental mechanisms for just about everything.

That's really big news

[Lispy]

If this turns out to be what it seems to be it is a dream come true. I wonder how this might affect future missions. Hopefully they will start digging at last and not only look for indirect signs of life such as water.

There were some experiments onboard the Viking landers that showed some odd results but weren't invested any further.

The fact that the fine rovers are unable to detect life is a shame I think. They were designed to search for water only, I know. But they should at least have been equipped with minimal biological experiments too, just in case. I can't wait for a samplereturn mission...

Re:What happens when life IS found

[snarkh]

Why should there be religious ramifications to finding bacterial life on Mars?

Re:What happens when life IS found

[greygent]

I reckon they'll just update their religions as these discoveries are made. It's happened before: we developed planes that could fly above the clouds and see no heaven, and they moved heaven to space. We've explored space, and they've.... moved it elsewhere.

Religion will still survive, perhaps unfortunately.

Re:What happens when life IS found

[tverbeek]

Comments like this just demonstrate how clueless many atheists are about others' beliefs. (I don't buy much of it either, but at least I know what I'm not buying.) Nowhere in the Torah, the Gospels and Epistles, the Quran, or any other holy scripture I'm aware of, does it say that there is no life outside this world. No contradiction means no problem. To most theists, the discovery of life on Mars would just be yet another example of the wonders of God's creation.

Re:Can somebody explain something?

[Angry Toad]

I'm no geochemist, but it really seems to me like they're jumping the gun on this one. We *know* Mars had volcanic activity which can produce methane, and we don't know that there isn't any currently. We know **nothing** about life on Mars. Parsimony dictates that we presume geo(areo?)chemistry or volcanism until it can be clearly shown to be of another origin.

Re:when asked if the methane was biological in ori

[Skjellifetti]

RTF whole quote:

Asked whether the continual production of methane is strong evidence of a biological origin of the gas, Dr Mumma said: "I think it is, myself personally."

He added: "It's difficult to imagine that primordial methane [from geological activity] would continue outgassing for four billion years [the age of Mars]. This looks very intriguing."

Doesn't sound reckless to me. Sounds more like informed speculation.

More like public relations

[Blethrow]

Public interest in Mars == greater support for NASA funding. The public doesn't care about rocks, they want to hear about life. So, to keep the public interested, NASA is now couching everything in terms of discovering life. You're not being 'eased into acceptance' of the idea of life there due to some slowly uncovering conspiracy, but rather because it's in their best interest for you to be excited about the idea of life there. It's PR spin, pure and simple.

exponential growth

[hak1du]

Exponential growth is a best-case situation. In a harsh environment, bacteria replicate very slowly.

Whether they divide once every century or once ever 20 minutes, their growth is still exponential. Biological systems only stop growing exponentially once there is serious competition for resources or space.

Re:What happens when life IS found

[hak1du]

I will love to see the ramifications to the worlds religions when life is actually found. The fall-out will be grand. With some luck it will put into proper perspective all the in-fighting that has been caused by 'holy wars' over the centuries.

If the discovery of a universe that is about a dozen billion light years large and a dozen billion years old, of 60ft cold-blooded monsters with banana-sized teeth, of nuclear fusion, of evolution, and of all that didn't change religion, the discovery of bacterial life on Mars won't either. In fact, most people will probably neither know or care about it.

What would be so unusual about life on Mars?

[aauu]

We have found a number of meteorites that are of martian origin. There should be a similar number of Earth origin meteorites on Mars. Mars had surface water at various times. Earth life has most likely already been planted. I would not be suprised if any place in the solar system that has liquid water already has forms of life derived from Earth. Show me life on another star system.