“This temporary increase in methane – sharply up and then back down – tells us there must be some relatively localizaded source” said Sushil Atreya of the University Of Michigan, Ann Arbor, a member of the curiosity rover science team. “there are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock.“Researches used Curiosity’s onboard Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory a dozen times in a 20-month period to sniff methane in the atmosphere. During two of those months, in late 2013 and early 2014, four measurements averaged seven parts per billion.
Before and after that, readings averaged only one tenth that
level. Curiosity also detected diferente Martian organic chemicals in powder
drilled from a rock dubbed Cumberland, the first definitive detection of
organics in surface materials of Mars. These Martian organics could either have
formed on Mars or been delivered to Mars by meteorites. Organic molecules,
which contain carbon and usually hydrogen, are chemical building blocks of
life, although they can exist without the presence of life.
Curiosity’s,
findings from analyzing sample of atmosphere and rock powder do not reveal
whether Mars has ever harbored living microbes, but the findings do shed light
on a chemically active modern Mars and on favorable conditions for life on
ancient Mars.
“we will keep working on the puzzles these findings present”
said John Grotzinger, Curiosity Project scientist of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena.
“can we learn more about the active chemistry causing such fluctuations in the amount of methane in the atmosphere? Can we choose rock targets where identifiable organics have been preserved?”This could be the biggest discovery in history.
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