NASA Mars Mystery: What Could Have Caused Methane Spike?

The last two weeks was an exciting time for NASA scientists as its Curiosity rover picked up what’s seen to be the highest concentration of methane gas on planet Mars.

The methane gas measured to 21 parts per billion, the highest since the methane spike recorded in 2013. Now, all the excitement eventually died down because just as fast as it went up, the gas often associated with organic microbes back here on Earth, just as suddenly dissipated.

What transpired is simply put a bummer to NASA scientists who hoped that they can finally prove there could be alien life on the Red Planet. "The methane mystery continues. We're more motivated than ever to keep measuring and put our brains together to figure out how methane behaves in the Martian atmosphere," Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.

But what could have caused the methane spike after all? "With our current measurements, we have no way of telling if the methane source is biology or geology, or even ancient or modern,” Paul Mahaffy, Mars (SAM) principal investigator in NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center, said.

At any rate, it is indeed very difficult for NASA to determine the source of the methane gas because as per a report, the U.S. space agency’s Curiosity can detect methane in the atmosphere but it can’t figure out what (or who) produced it.

Methane gas is a byproduct of microbes called methanogens which survive in rocks found deep underground in Earth and even in digestive tracts of animals (cows, humans). Methanogens are known to survive in oxygen-deprived areas so a place like Planet Mars would be an ideal environment for them to survive.

The gas can also be produced via geothermal or nonbiological reasons. For example, if water reacts with the minerals found on rocks, then serpentinization could happen and methane produced. Of course, this theory involves a crucial element that’s basically non-existent on Mars - water, which could very well prove as well that life indeed exists on the planet.

In time, if scientists can prove that the methane detected came from nonbiological sources then there’s also the possibility that the gas which escaped beneath the Martian rocks could be ancient. These are methane gas produced billions of years ago when the Red Planet was covered in water and escaped only on the surface due to various geological movements.