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Methane Hints at Life on Mars

Gas released in high concentrations could be from bacteria

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 15, 2009 4:38 PM CST

(Newser) – The discovery of high methane concentrations on Mars may hint that underground life exists on the red planet, the Houston Chronicle reports. Scientists funded by NASA and other institutions, using Earth-based telescopes, have found plumes of methane in such high concentrations they believe bacteria, which can also produce the gas on Earth, may be the source.

“If methane were absent, you would be able to argue more forcefully there isn’t life on Mars,” one astronomer says. Although geological processes can also produce methane, a scientist who claimed to discover bacterial evidence on a Martian meteorite in the 1990s is optimistic about the findings. “It doesn’t prove it,” he says. “But, to me, that is very strong support for the microbial life theory.”

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (1)]

This visualization provided by NASA shows a methane plume found in Mars's atmosphere during the northern summer season. (NASA)

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this picture of Mars in 2003. (NASA)

This photo shows a polygonal pattern in the ground near NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, similar in appearance to icy ground in the arctic regions of Earth. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

This image shows colonies of Chryseobacterium greenlandensis, a form of extreme life. Some scientists speculate that methane on Mars could indicate the existence of primitive life. (AP Photo/Penn State University)

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I think this is extremely strong evidence for current life on Mars. - Johnson Space Center astrobiologist David McKay

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 4 comments

riffran

Jan 16, 2009 1:50 AM CST

You know something???? I am a christian, and I have never seen anywhere in the bible stating that God only created life here exclusively.......so the whole life elsewhere existing will deny GOD thing, just doesn't make sense....I can se both sides of the coin so to speak and I don't think they are mutually exclusive.....it's a matter of perspective....God created the earth and heavens in seven days, but what is seven days to God?, is it one rotation of this planet on it's axis, or one rotation of our galaxy on its axis, or one rotation of the entire universe, depending on how you look at it, we aren't more than a week or two old.....besides organic molecules have been discovered elswhere in the cosmos, besides just our little speck of a planet

Michael_CT

Jan 16, 2009 1:32 AM CST

Haha... a fart is going to unravel the Creationists. brilliant!

Guest

Jan 15, 2009 7:59 PM CST

this, like fossils, is simply another test of our faith in god. do not be fooled!

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Methane Hints at Life on Mars