spacetoday.net: Methane plumes found on Mars

Posted: Fri, Jan 16, 2009, 7:33 AM ET (1233 GMT)
Mars methane map (NASA)

Scientists announced Thursday that they have detected several plumes of methane in the atmosphere of Mars, but said that the discovery itself doesn't mean that life exists on the Red Planet. In a paper published in the journal Science, scientists said they had made the first definitive detection of methane in the planet's atmosphere during spectroscopic observations of the planet by telescopes on Earth, linking them to three distinct regions on the planet. Because methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere, is must be replenished regularly, and scientists said that methane levels varied seasonally. On Earth most methane is produced by organisms, and that process could also be taking place if microbes exist below the Martian surface. However, scientists cautioned that methane could also be creased by past or present geological activity, and that the methane discovery alone is not proof of Martian life. Additional studies, including looking for isotopic variations in the methane, will be needed to better understand what is generating the gas.