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Scientists may have solved a long-standing Martian mystery, supporting our never-ending quest to find signs of life on the red planet—Why does Mars burp?
In recent years, NASA's Curiosity rover has detected varying levels of methane gas in Mars' atmosphere. While this might sound unremarkable, this fluctuating belch and fart gas has excited scientists because—if its presence on Earth is anything to go by—it could be evidence of microbial life on the red planet.
Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover ever sent to Mars, and it has been collecting data since 2012. As part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Mission, the rover was sent to answer a simple question: "Did Mars ever have the right environmental conditions to support small life forms?"
Therefore, the planet's methane emissions offer an exciting opportunity to explore this question. But in order to do so, we need to be able to sample them. And that is a lot easier said than done.
"Understanding Mars's methane variations has been highlighted by NASA's Curiosity team as the next key step towards figuring out where it comes from," John Ortiz, a graduate student at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in a statement. "There are several challenges associated with meeting that goal, and a big one is knowing what time of a given sol (Martian day) is best for Curiosity to perform an atmospheric sampling experiment."
To better predict these fluctuations, Ortiz and colleagues from across the U.S. used mathematical models to simulate these elusive emissions.
The team argues that the gas most likely originates underground, therefore it simulated the path the gas must take through the planet's fractured rock to the surface.
They also consider how changes in temperature can affect how much of the methane will stick to pores in the surface rock. And, from these models, they were able to calculate the best time of day to collect methane samples.
"Our work suggests several key time windows for Curiosity to collect data," Ortiz said. "We think these offer the best chance of constraining the timing of methane fluctuations, and (hopefully) down the line bringing us closer to understanding where it comes from on Mars."
In a study published in the journal JGR Planets, the team concluded that the best time to collect this data is prior to sunrise during the upcoming northern summer period, which lies within the candidate time from the Curiosity rover's next sampling campaign.
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About the writer
Pandora Dewan is a Senior Science Reporter at Newsweek based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on science, health ... Read more