Mars Has Gas
January 17th 2009 03:00
Category: No Category
Mars
Scientists in Europe and the United States have detected what seems to be promising signs of methane gas in the Martian atmosphere, and cannot yet explain why it's there.
Methane is commonly exuded by living organisms and fermentation. It can also rise to the surface during volcanic eruptions, and can be carried by comets that at times have made contact with the atmosphere here on Earth and other planets. On Earth, most of the methane in the atmosphere comes from the digestive processes of animals and bacteria in wetlands and landfills.
Firstly, it could be emerging from a Martian volcano that is erupting right now, even though little or no volcanic activity has been observed on Mars from high-resolution ground-based telescopes on Earth or from orbiters circling the Red Planet.
Secondly, the gas may have been deposited into the planet's atmosphere by a grazing comet or asteroid, even by one that hit the surface very recently.
Thirdly the least likely but certainly the most dramatic of all it could be emerging from beneath the Martian surface a byproduct of some kind of living organism’s bacteria, perhaps might be surviving and nourishing themselves by ingesting the soil and rocks containing chemicals that serve as a source of energy.
And fourthly methane could be produced naturally by the oxidation of rocks and chemicals within the Martian soil.
Wherever the methane comes from, it must be either of relatively recent origin or be continuously replenished, because the gas lasts only a few hundred years or so before it oxidizes and becomes water and carbon dioxide.
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