What's significant about this is not that it might signify life - but that it is a clock that tells us how old Mars is.
The scientists are suprised to find methane here because it leaches off so quickly, so if Mars is ~4 billion years old like earth supposedly is, all the methane should be long gone.
Either Mars has a source to replenish methane, biological or geochemical, or Mars has had methane added to it recently (meteors or such), or Mars is much younger than folks think, and what we are seeing is the remnants of a rapidly diminishin original quantity of methane.
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What's significant about this is not that it might signify life - but that it is a clock that tells us how old Mars is. The scientists are suprised to find methane here because it leaches off so quickly, so if Mars is ~4 billion years old like earth supposedly is, all the methane should be long gone. Either Mars has a source to replenish methane, biological or geochemical, or Mars has had methane added to it recently (meteors or such), or Mars is much younger than folks think, and what we are seeing is the remnants of a rapidly diminishin original quantity of methane.