Methane On Mars-A Plume Came And A Plume Went

A Plume Came, a Plume Went

Two weeks ago, NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars detected a spike in the level of methane gas in the atmosphere above the planet’s Gale Crater.

Scientists grew excited at the high concentration of the gas, suggesting it might be a sign of microbial life.

But, alas, the gas simply dissipated a few days later, leaving astronomers puzzled as to whether Earth’s neighbor harbors any signs of life.

“A plume came and a plume went,” Paul Mahaffy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center told scientists at a conference, according to the New York Times.

The space agency’s Mars rovers and orbiters are constantly searching for traces of methane in the red planet’s atmosphere, with varying degrees of luck.

In 2013, they registered a spike of up to 7 parts per billion that lasted at least two months – the recent one was 21 parts per billion.

Methane, mostly known as natural gas, can be produced by microbes, such as those living in the guts of animals, or through geological processes.

Astronomers are unsure where Mars’ methane is coming from and what’s producing it, but they are determined to find out.

Maybe it was just a burp.

“The methane mystery continues,” Ashwin R. Vasavada, a mission project scientist, declared in a statement.