Methane for the Red Planet Could Mean Life?

 Methane (natural gas) is found on Mars. The unusual aspect of it— there’s no scientific consensus for reasons for its presence. The first hint of methane came in 1976– the Viking landers detected methane’s presence during the landing of the spacecraft. At that time, however, NASA mission specialists couldn’t pin down origins. There was little fanfare made of its presence— was it an instrument error or earthly contamination? Many scientists now believe Martian methane is based on Martian seasonal cycles.

[I first learned of Martian methane by reading the seminal book on the technique of mass spectrometry—its primary author is a pioneer in the field mass spectrometry, Fred McLafferty Ph.D. Professor McLafferty went on record by posting the NASA data from the Viking mission in his book. He stated the peaks from the instrumental read-out were from Methane—but stopped short of declaring the presence of Martian methane from the Red Planet. It was a dicey call in my opinion but sparked the interests of many armchair planetologists who read his book.]

Dozens of years later, in the mid-1990s, the presence of flowing water at one point on Mars  seemed all but given, but the presence of past life was the question that needed to be answered. Was the presence of methane and past flowing water indicative of life under the Martian regolith. Numerous probes and rovers have been sent to Mars since the initial pronouncement in 1997. The consensus, Mars was once green and blue from the presence of water and oxygen appears all but witnessed by humanity so many billions of years ago. However, the planet now appears to be a ghost of its former self.  Interestingly, there are no  fossilized remains on Mars —at least none that the consensus of scientists agree with. 

There has been speculation from time to time on the presence of Martian fossils found in meteorites that landed in Antarctica. The Martian meteorites were examined by various groups of scientists —their conclusions could not verify nor deny the presence of past Martian life.

We stand at a crossroads whether Mars ever hosted life. However, the fact that Mars once was similar to earth piques the interests of many scientists.