As if scientists needed another tantalizing indicator in their search for extraterrestrial life, the recent evidence of methane gas, apparently rampaging along the surface of Mars, gives them the catnip needed to buzz more about it.
Casually known as “swamp gas,” methane gas is a common compound of carbon and hydrogen, produced in one of the following ways: solar radiation; internal chemical workings (geothermal or hydrothermal activity); or from some type of life, e.g., decaying vegitation, or microbes called methanogens.
Admittedly, there is no shortage of non-biological methane in the solar system. On Earth, most methane is produced biologically, but much of it comes from volcanoes and hotsprings, being belched out from the core.
Gaseous planets like Jupiter and Saturn pump out huge amounts.
But what makes Mars different than Jupiter or a comet, is a composition that is so Earth like. Scientific imaginations are sprung from these simliarities, leading to any number of possibilites to explore.
Take, for example, Mexican astrobiologist Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez, who dreams of planting pine trees there one day.
But the most compelling methane-related find is the discovery of formaldehyde. Vittorio Formisano, head of research at Italy’s Institute of Physics and Interplanetary Space, presented in February the results of testing that indicated formaldehyde, a breakdown product of methane, existed in large quantities.
For those of us non-scientific types who hear the words and offer a glassy-eyed, “so what?”, this means that 2.5 million tons of methane are produced a year on Mars, and increases the probability that there is some brand of life there.
This discovery may lead to placing additional drills and testers on the next probe, which some say, NASA was shy about pursuing in the past.
