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Methane on Mars?

Posted by michael on from the probably-not-cow-farts dept.

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.'"

3 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Existence by Justifiable_Delusion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Mad, adj : Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence. Ambrose Bierce - The Deveil's Dictionsary
    1. Re:Existence by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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...

      --
      Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
    2. Re:Existence by sbaker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      www.sjbaker.org