A sudden release of methane gas on Mars, three times larger than any detected before, has caused NASA to abruptly change its plans and examine the phenomenon more closely. The gas release, which could be due to the presence of living organisms, was detected on Wednesday. New orders were sent to the Curiosity rover on Friday. Preliminary results should be received by Monday.

Further details are available in the article, linked below:



https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/science/nasa-mars-rover-life.html

Thanks for the article. Until proven i will remain a skeptic.

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We're all skeptical, or should be, at this point. I'm sure NASA is, too. For once they're playing it pretty casual, actually. No big announcement this time, a week ahead of a press conference, about some undisclosed something they've discovered, with everyone guessing what it could be. Just a simple statement about what was found, what was done about it, and when they'll know something more to tell us, a couple of days hence.

The surge of methane gas had subsided to background levels before it could be examined again by Curiosity. There is an outside chance that the Mars Express orbiter also caught the spike. It will be a while before it downloads its data to Earth.

Once a methane spike of this size (~20 parts per billion by volume) can be examined, by the Trace Gas Orbiter it should be possible to distinguish between carbon 12 and carbon 13 isotopes. If there is less C 13 and more C 12 than expected, this could indicate a living source for the methane. Living things selectively use the lighter isotope, and concentrate it in their metabolism.