NEW YORK: Data gathered by the Curiosity rover over a period of 605 Martian days has been analyzed carefully and the presence of methane on Mars has been confirmed. NASA says that the finding supports the theory that Mars might have harbored life at some point of time.
The presence of Methane on the Red Planet was suspected over a decade ago. NASA’s rover Curiosity has searched for evidences of methane on the planet right from the beginning of its mission.
The presence of Methane suggests that life was possibly once present on Mars because methane is usually created by living organisms. On Earth, nearly all of the methane comes from biological activity. If life is not present on Mars, then scientists may have another mystery to solve – finding other sources of methane on Mars.
The tunable laser spectrometer in the SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) instrument of Curiosity detected episodic increase in the concentration of methane in the environment of Mars.
NASA will take further measurements, and so will a partnership mission called the Trace Gas Orbiter to be launched by the European and Russian Space Agencies. Researchers hope that the mission will be helpful in detecting methane on a much larger scale.
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