What's behind the Martian methane mystery?

[Admin]

The cause of mysterious methane spikes on Mars may be a strange form of alien life — or it may just be interesting chemistry. Either way, something odd is happening on the Red Planet.

What's behind the Martian methane mystery? : Read more

 

[ZaMan]

The cause of mysterious methane spikes on Mars may be a strange form of alien life — or it may just be interesting chemistry. Either way, something odd is happening on the Red Planet.

What's behind the Martian methane mystery? : Read more

It is hard to argue against the possibility of shallow life on Mars, while at the same time positing that the apparent seasonality of the methane spikes may be due to methanogenic life. Very deep life, proposed as the possible methane source, would not be expected to vary seasonally. At least not intuitively.......

 

[billslugg]

Mars has a lot of seasonal variation in the southern hemisphere. The orbit is elliptical and those in the south have their winter when the planet is farther away. Maybe the methane from deep life reaches the surface at a constant rate but is held in the cold soil until spring arrives. In the hot summer it is discharged.