Something on Mars Is Producing Gas Made by Living Things on Earth

"Mars emits methane, a European orbiter has confirmed. But scientists can’t say yet whether the source is geological or biological."

"Methane gas periodically wafts into the atmosphere of Mars; that notion, once considered implausible and perplexing, is now widely accepted by planetary scientists.

Why the methane is there is still a bewildering mystery. It may even point to present-day Martian microbes living in the rocks below the surface.

In Nature Geoscience on Monday, scientists working with the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter reported that in the summer of 2013, the spacecraft detected methane within Gale Crater, a 96-mile-wide depression near the Martian equator."

Kenneth Chang reports for the New York Times April 1, 2019.