Does Life Exist on Mars? NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds Hints in Methane

Sporadic releases of methane on Mars detected by NASA's Curiosity rover hints at possible existence of life on the planet.

According to NBC News, the rover frequently notices methane releases but on four occasions the atmospheric scanners onboard found concentrations 10 times higher. On Earth, methane was known to exist even before complicated life forms emerged, attributed to presence of microorganisms. NASA's Curiosity rover normally identifies presence of methane in concentrations around 0.7 parts per billion parts of air but during spikes the concentration increased to 7 parts.

"We thought we had closed the book on methane. It was disappointing to a lot of people that there wasn't significant methane on Mars, but that's where we were," scientist told Discovery News.

Curiosity is currently positioned in the Gale crater located along Mars's equator. The team overseeing rover operations has been unable to put its finger on the source but expects it to be close to the crater. While a number of physical processes including release of trapped methane within water-ice is probable, the possibility that the planet hosts colonies of microorganisms is not being ruled out.

Researchers can ascertain if the source is biological by examining the nature of carbon in the gas, BBC reported. Methane on Earth usually comprises the lighter isotope of carbon, carbon-12. Researchers postulate that a lighter version of carbon in Mars's methane could increase the likelihood of the source being biological. However scientists will have to wait for the next burst of release to collect enough gas for analysis.