NASA could have just found signs of life on Mars
- NASA discovered a steady stream of methane trapped beneath the surface of Mars
- It’s being released from under the ground at seasonal intervals
- It hints that they should take their hunt for Martain’s life underground
Published on Apr 23, 2024 at 4:42 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Apr 24, 2024 at 2:47 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Alessandro Renesis
While Martians are still proving elusive, NASA scientists believe they may have found signs of life on the surface of Mars – or rather beneath it.
Close to the Gale Crater on the Red Planet, the NASA Curiosity Rover discovered one spot where a steady stream of methane was sporadically released.
It fluctuated depending on the time of day and the season – sometimes reaching peaks of 40 times higher than usual.
READ MORE! NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter sent heart-warming final message back to Earth
The methane is trapped beneath the surface of Mars under a layer of underground salts from the soil that ha formed a crust.
NASA believes the methane passes through this crust when temperatures spike – or when the NASA Curiosity Rover rolls over the crust and cracks it.
NASA’s car-sized robotic vehicle has been roaming the surface of Mars since 2012.
Methane is a simple molecule, made of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms.
Crucially it’s produced by living creatures on Earth – gas passed by some animals as they digest food.
However, it could also be forged from geological processes beneath the surface of Mars that NASA scientists and their surface rover haven’t seen yet.
The finding has led NASA to take their search for Martian life underground.
It could mean that when humans finally get there – possibly with the help of inflatable abodes – we may have company.
Earth-based NASA experiments, mimicked the conditions of Martian soil, to try and work out what was going on.
They believe that toxic salts, called perchlorates, bubble up from the icy depths of the planet over time as a vapor.
They then sit beneath the dusty surface, known as ‘regolith’, forming a crusty shell over a period of three to 13 days.
“On Mars, such a process can occur naturally over a long period of time in the shallow permafrost regions, and it may be possible for enough salt to accumulate in the top layer to form a seal,” the team behind the new study, published in the journal JGR Planets, said.
The source of the Martian methane accompanying the salty vapor bubbles remains a mystery for now.
Although NASA recently revealed its Perseverance rover on Mars will need help bringing back samples it has collected in hopes of confirming the existence of alien life.
Scientists recently revealed that the color purple is what they should be looking for, due to its link to a bacteria capable of photosynthesis.
Having said that, it feels like the search of alien life will have to progress a lot further before we get an answer.
DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie
All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
