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 t...