Martian methane mystery set to be cleared up by Curiosity

A recent, high-resolution image montage, taken by Curiosity itself.

NASA

Back in 2009, some Earth-based observations found what could potentially cause a complete reworking of our understanding of Mars: seasonal plumes of methane billowing into the red planet's atmosphere. On Earth, methane is most frequently associated with either biological or geological activity, and we generally don't think Mars has much of either. But the Martian summers appeared to cause a large outpouring of the gas from a limited area on Mars. The gas was not present in the winter.

It's very difficult to account for a source of methane this large based on what we know of Mars. The environment there is extremely inhospitable to life, even during the Martian summer. And all our imaging of the surface indicates that major geological activity ended long ago, leaving the planet's surface to be shaped by a variety of weathering processes.

Later analyses have cast doubt on the original findings, but we should be able to get a definitive answer as to whether Mars has methane later today. That's because NASA will be announcing the results of atmospheric sampling performed by the Curiosity rover.

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