NASA Scientist: 'Mars Could be Biologically Alive'

This article is another one talking about the methane on Mars and its potential meaning for possible life on Mars due to methane having a short lifespan in an atmosphere. It was written in 1995, and talks about how the methane could have a biological origin or be from geochemical origins. Apparently, many living things on Earth produce methane as a biproduct while either living or while they are composing after death. They also found hydrogen in the atmosphere, which could be taken as an indication of water in the polar ice caps that melted and turned into water vapor.

Jellyplants on Mars

Proposed "scout mission" to Mars in 2007 plans to introduce small part mustard part jelly fish plants to life on Mars. The hope is to cultivate these small plants in a small greenhouse in Martian soil with moisture added, oxygen enhanced Martian atmosphere and Martian light. The scientists have added bio luminescence from jelly fish to sensor and reporter genes so that we can gain information about how the plants are responding to the different conditions they face on Mars.

Mars Dust

This article by NASA written in July of 2003 describes a series of dust clouds that formed on Mars that were so dense and thick that they could be seen with only a backyard telescope on Earth. Apparently the dust on Mars is very fine and thus it is possible to have dust storms on Mars even though there is very little atmosphere or wind. Also, since the dust is so fine, and the sun is so bright, the particles of dust reflect the sun and the dust cloud almost glows.

Microbes found to be more lethal in space....

This article explains experiments conducted by scientists at Arizona State University have found that everyday bacteria and germs that cause food poisoning or other illnesses can become lethal in space. This has important implications for astronauts taking trips to the moon, or in the future, voyages to Mars. Spending extended periods of time in space has been proven to weaken the immune system and the presence of bacteria and germs is a concern. To conduct basic experiments on the effects of space on bacteria, samples of Salmonella typhimurium were taken to outer space on the NASA mission STS-115. S. typhimurium presents a threat to astronauts because it causes food poisoning and often resists antibiotic treatment. It was found that the conditions in space triggered a ‘master switch’ within the ‘Hfg’ genetic switch of the bacteria which controls 160 or more genes. This gene cascade triggers physiological responses that cased S. typhimurium to be three times more virulent in space than on earth. The increased lethality can be traced to the formation of a biofilm which renders the response of the immune system and antibiotics much less effective.

Mars, atmosphere

This website has multiple sections talking about Mars. It talks about Mar's atmosphere first. Mars has a very thin atmosphere comprised mostly of CO2 with a lot of dust in the atmosphere as well that, combined with wind, causes dust storms on the surface of the planet. The viking explorer found that the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere of Mars is 95.32%. Because of the presence of even a minute amount of atmosphere on Mars, there is some amount of warming of the planet as a result, not much, but some. In 2004, small amounts of methane were detected in the atmosphere which could be an indication of life. Even smaller amounts of ammonia were also detected, which apparently is even more interesting as ammonia does not last in the atmosphere long and is another byproduct of living or recently living material, at least as we know it. Apparently water vapor was detected on the surface of Mars as early as 1970, but molecular hydrogen, or hydrogen in its gaseous form, H2, was only recently detected using spectrophotometry in 2001. Overall, it was a very interesting and informitive website/article.

Red Planet Radar: Probing the Martian Underground for Water

Using a radar system through European Space Agency (ESA), scientists are planning to search for signs of water 3 miles (5 kilometers) below the surface using radio waves. Aboard the Mars Express, there is a "Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding instrument, called MARSIS" that will be responsible for searching the planet. The searching will be accomplished while the Mars Express is in orbit using a 131 foot antenna with a 6 foot wide point. MARSIS will then send two low radio frequencies to produce a radar surrounding. For about two years (687 days) MARSIS will be able to observe Mars, and allow scientists to develop three dimensional images of Mars' crest.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/marsis_radar_030430.html

Red Planet Radar: Probing the Martian Underground for Water

Using a radar system through European Space Agency (ESA), scientists are planning to search for signs of water 3 miles (5 kilometers) below the surface using radio waves. Aboard the Mars Express, there is a "Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding instrument, called MARSIS" that will be responsible for searching the planet. The searching will be accomplished while the Mars Express is in orbit using a 131 foot antenna with a 6 foot wide point. MARSIS will then send two low radio frequencies to produce a radar surrounding. For about two years (687 days) MARSIS will be able to observe Mars, and allow scientists to develop three dimensional images of Mars' crest.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/marsis_radar_030430.html

Scientists Hope to Listen for Potential ‘Friends” Elsewhere in the Universe

In Western Australia, an oversized antenna is being worked on and will be planned to be active in a couple of years, to listen to sounds coming from the universe from about a billion years ago. So far this paper states that there are no findings of extraterrestrials, however, they still have been diligently working towards finding intelligent life out there in the universe. Unfortunately the signals that were omitted from a billion years ago are of the same signaling sequence as radios and televisions, thus their struggle to filter out unwanted man made signals have been their main objective to over come. The two specialists on this task are Avi Loeb and Matias Zaldarriaga from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.This paper quotes the two specialists from Harvard, and also use related searches as their source: Space, Radio, American Astronomical Society, and Australia. I believe that this paper became news due to the sudden construction of this giant antenna in Australia. I had no problems reading this paper due to the great background description that it provided initially and throughout the paper.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/science/space/09seti.html?ex=1169528400&en=715c

Five New Satellites With a Mission of Finding a Source of Color in Space

NASA plans on shuttling five satellites under the name of Themis, to observe and further understand substorm phenomenons occurring above the earth’s atmosphere. The paper states that these phenomenons occur due to the leakage of solar wind particles into earth’s magnetosphere; where these particles head towards the earths poles and collide with the air molecules, thus causing a greenish-whitish halo glow in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, these glows can only be viewed from space, and occur randomly, and may aid the destructive force of storms that originate from solar eruptions. The five satellites are scheduled to be launched on February 15, and currently, this $200 million dollar mission is waiting for observation before completion. The paper quotes an expert from University of California, Berkeley; however, it did not seem as if it had come from an article. This paper became news due to the amount of money invested in this project, and the passion that the scientists have for the glowing space phenomenons. I didn’t find anything difficult to understand about this paper, in fact, it gave a complete background of all the new scientific information it talked about.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/science/space/23ligh.html?ex=1327208400&en=fe2ecdc3a3adadf7&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Two Mars Rover Sites Get Science Stamp Of Approval

Two landing locations on Mars have been approved for scientists working on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Project. The project is planned to employ twin robotic space crafts. Over 185 locations have been considered in the past two years, and finally a location has been decided by the NASA's chief space scientist, Edward Weiler, in Washington, D.C. The two locations chosen were Meridiani Planum and Gusev crater, due to both possibly being ancient hot springs thought to be depicted by the grayish coloring found in images.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/mer_landsites_030126.html

Deep Hole Found on Mars

Deep hole has been found on Mars and scientists believe that life may be found within this hole. The hole is estimated to be 330 feet across (100 meters); such information was gathered through the high resolution feature of The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). NASA says they see two dark spots near the equator and believe they are entrances to underground caves. So far the NASA Mars Odyssey and its Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) are near by, allowing exploration of such areas to be pursued. Scientists say that holes such as the one mentioned earlier and caves are highly targeted locations on Mars due to the likelihood of microbial life being found in such locations.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070605_mars_hole.html

Mars Underground: Digging Deep for Life

It's said that there may be life on Mars, not on the surface but underneath in pockets of frozen water. Scientists plan to engage this theory by looking underneath the surface of earth, hoping to create a similar environment on Mars. So far NASA is teaming up with the Spanish Center of Astrobiology in the project MARTE (Mars Analog Research and Technology Experiment), where they use self sustaining robots capable of digging deep into Mars' surface and hopefully retrieve samples of Martian life. The starting location is said to be Rio Tinto, a river found on Mars. Scientists say the reddish tint is caused by highly acidic water containing dissolved iron. This acidic water is said to be maintained by microbial life eating sulfide minerals and producing sulfuric acid as a by product. Along with digging into the surface of mars and examining Rio Tinto, they also plan on searching caves due to the rich environment it usually provides for microbes.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_caves_030905.html

Rodents and Mars

Apparently gerbils are serving as the "lab rats" to test out possible human voyage to Mars. The Russians have sent ten gerbils into space to study further the possibility of sending humans to Mars. I wonder how the gerbils feel about there new weightless environment...While they are only going to be up in space for 12 days, this can be a long time to spend with 9 other mammals in cramped living conditions. It could become "Real World" for rodents as the true colors of these seemingly friendly rodents is caught on camera. And what is the $1million prize after the voyage? The lucky winners get to lie on the dissection table and lend their bodies as a sacrifice to science!
http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mice_and_men_space_gerbils_blaze_trail_for_humans_to_Mars_999.html

Possible signs of Life in Martian Soil

German researcher Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen, has reexamined finding from the 1976 when Viking landers. According to his findings, there may in fact be a "weird life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid Martian surface." His findings suggest that up to 0.1% of Martian soil may be biological in nature. These levels are simmilar to levels found in the Antarctic permafrost. This might suggest that interplanetary seeding from Mars to Earth or Earth to Mars might have occurred. Scientist hope to confirm Houtkooper's finding with the data that is brought back from the Phoenix Mars Lander in 2008.

The Deposit of Ice at the South Pole of Mars is Measured

In an article from the New York Times from March of this year they were able to measure the amount of ice on the South Pole of Mars. The polar cap is a mixture of frozen carbon dioxide and water. The water accounts for 90% of the cap which was measured at 2.3 miles in depth and greater than the size of Texas. If you were to melt that down it would be enough to leave the surface of the planet 36 feet under water. An interesting point at the end of the article says that in the past Mars may have had even more water than what exists at the poles, and that scientists are interested in finding what happened to it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/science/16mars.html?n=Top%2fNews%2fScience%2fTopics%2fMars%20%28Planet%29

Ancient Bacteria to Mars

This article shows scientist from the U.S., Canada, Russia, and Sweden finding DNA from cells of microbes that were living in up to 10 meters deep ice in the Yukon, Siberia, and Antartica. This ancient bacteria has the ability to survive nearly half a million years in frozen conditions, similar to what Mars is like. Even though the cell is dead it's DNA fragments into pieces that are still able to make into samples. The strands are long from the continious repair that is taking place in order to remain alive. Mars is of intrest due to the stable frozen enviornment where these microbes could survive.

Phoenix will Assess Chance for Life in Mars' Northern Hemisphere

In this article, the NASA spacecraft Phoenix is scheduled to land on Mars in 2008 for a 90 day mission to investigate the possibility that the icy northern plains of Mars have supported life in the past. In the geologically recent past, the northern plains could have supported life since the climate was warmer. NASA scientists are attempting to determine whether the conditions of this environment are not lethal to potential life forms. The spacecraft Phoenix is equipped with a robotic arm that can dig trenches up to 1.6 feet in depth in order to collect a sample of icy soil topped by a thin layer of dry soil. Phoenix will then place the samples in ‘ovens’ aboard the craft and heat them to search for the building blocks of life, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and other basic essential elements.
The Northern plains were chosen as the destination for Phoenix because a high concentration of hydrogen molecules were previously discovered by the Odyssey spacecraft, meaning the content of the soil is 50% ice. The overarching goal of the Mars Exploration program is the search for life, but part of that includes searching for habitats on Mars that are suitable for life to occur.

Phoenix will Assess Chance for Life in Mars' Northern Hemisphere

In this article, the NASA spacecraft Phoenix is scheduled to land on Mars in 2008 for a 90 day mission to investigate the possibility that the icy northern plains of Mars have supported life in the past. In the geologically recent past, the northern plains could have supported life since the climate was warmer. NASA scientists are attempting to determine whether the conditions of this environment are not lethal to potential life forms. The spacecraft Phoenix is equipped with a robotic arm that can dig trenches up to 1.6 feet in depth in order to collect a sample of icy soil topped by a thin layer of dry soil. Phoenix will then place the samples in ‘ovens’ aboard the craft and heat them to search for the building blocks of life, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and other basic essential elements.
The Northern plains were chosen as the destination for Phoenix because a high concentration of hydrogen molecules were previously discovered by the Odyssey spacecraft, meaning the content of the soil is 50% ice. The overarching goal of the Mars Exploration program is the search for life, but part of that includes searching for habitats on Mars that are suitable for life to occur.

Shallow Lakes on Mars

This article describes how Nasa's Opprotunity rover are looking at areas of Mars that might have once been shallow lakes. The area on Mars where the excavation is occuring lies close to Mars' equator. Although dried up now there seems to be traces of mineral deposits from the lakebeds that have been erroded due to wind and water. When arriving this possible sight of crater in September of 2006, the Opprotunity began circling the crater for months to find a possible spot to begin its decent into the crater. It was postponed due to sandstorms that hindered both Nasa's Opprotunity and Spirit rovers from decending into the crater. Just recently in August the sandstorms were less intense and the rover was able to make its decent. They just recently have decended 4 meters to see if the rover could make it out. It has been demanded for accent if there is over a 40 percent slip rate. They got to 3 meters where the slip rate became about 40 percent so they returned to the top. The crater is a total of 30 meters deep.

Russia Sends Gerbils into Space to Prepare for Manned Mars Mission

Last Friday, the Russian space agency sent a rocket into space containing 10 gerbils. The goal of the 12 day mission is to hopefully shed some light on the effects of a future manned mission to Mars. Gerbils were chosen over other rodents because they produce less excrement, require less water, and are active during the daytime (which makes them easier to film).

Anatoly Grogoryev, of the Russian Academy of Science, said that the experiment will be studying "salt exchange mechanisms in zero gravity conditions." When the gerbils return to Earth next week, many of them will be dissected and analyzed.

If Russia is sending research missions to study possible Mars trips, maybe there will be some competition (or cooperation) between Russia and the US that will see a manned trip to Mars realized in the foreseeable future.

Mars, Like Earth, Has Cyclical Ice Ages, Study Says

In this article, scientists discuss the history of Mar's ice ages and the new theory that surround them. Within the last 5 million years, Mars has undergone 40 different ice ages. As these occur, they send the sheets of ice down to the equator and than they melt back upwards. The reasons for the variation in ice ages has to do with the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the planet. Evidence of ice has been found very far from the poles of the planet, and originally it was thought that this ice formed following snowfall on the planet around 5 million years ago. Now scientists believe that the ice was formed more recently than originally though. Scientists now believe that most of Mar's ice has been formed by vapor diffusion—the seeping of gas directly into underground pockets during cold periods. This could completely alter the history originally thought for the planet.

The reason scientists believe there are so many different ice ages has to do with the wobbly theory, which suggests that because the planet has no moon to stabilize it, it is subject to varying degrees of wobble from its normal position at 25 degrees. As the planet wobbles, the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the planet varies and the ice sheets move towards the equator or the poles.

Tufts Scientists Look for Evidence of Life on Mars

This article describes how researchers at Tufts University looking into life on Mars in possible minus -50 Degrees C. On Earth we have found life in the hottest of deserts and heat vents in the oceans so why not in the freezing cold?

They are looking on the Pheonix that was sent out this past August. They have been waiting for the past 10 years to get this project finalized and now another 8 months until it finds it way to Mars. They will be looking into the water and soil that they collect. It will be the first time wet chemistry is ever performed on Mars. They are looking for organic compounds of sodium, potassium, calcium and others that will provide potential evidence of life.

New Theory Explains Ice on Mars

This article, discusses a new theory that wobbles on Mars maybe responsible for giving the planet much more dramatic ice ages than those seen on Earth. Due to the presence of our Moon, the Earth has a relatively stable rotational axis. The Earth is always tilted at around 23 degrees. Mars, though, can wobble up to 10 degrees from its normal 25 degree axis. The resulting change in the axis of Mars would result in a huge difference in the amount of sunlight that reached certain sections of the planet and would dramatically alter the ice coverage on the planet. These dramatic ice ages have been shown to occur every 120,000 years or so. Until now, scientists have been puzzled as to why evidence of such high levels of non-polar ice has been found on the planet. They believe that the tilting of the planet would result in a changing climate, from humid to dry, and that would resulting in many different cycles of ice formation and retreat. Currently scientists expect to find two types of ice on the planet: surface formed ice and ice formed within porous soil.

Martian "Pregnancy Test" Orbits Earth

An article on Space.com was released today regarding a new experiment similar to a pregnancy test that is designed to search for signs of life on Mars. The experiment is called the "Life Marker Chip" or LMC and was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). The post-stamp-sized experiment was launched last week aboard a Russian rocket that was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The tiny experiment contains more than 2,000 life-detecting samples that glow if they detect life-critical compounds like protein or DNA. Scientists and engineers hope that the chip can remain viable in the harsh radiation, temperatures and vacuum of space during a trip to Mars. Andrew Steele, a molecular biologist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C. said, "This will be the first time that these types of materials will have flown unprotected in space in a manner similar to a flight to Mars".

The LMC experiment uses color-changing chemicals to detect traces of hormones found in greater numbers after conception. Scientists will examine the samples when the mission returns to Earth on September 25th.

The manager of the experiment hopes to have the LMC strapped aboard the ESA's "ExoMars" robotic rover mission, which is planned for launch in 2013.

Mars Global Surveyor; Magnetic Field Experiment

This is a press release done in 2005 and is found on the NASA website. It discusses investigations done by NASA to establish if Mars has a magnetic field and if it does, what the nature of it is. The results of this investigation were that Mars does not have a current magnetic field but that it used to have one about 3.5 billion years ago. Also, they found that much of the current state of Mar's atmosphere and climate are a direct result of this loss.

NASA study will help stop stowaways to Mars!

In this article, recent studies conducted by NASA have discovered new species of ‘extremophiles,’ ultra-hardy bacterial organisms that thrive in harsh environments such as hot-springs, deep mines and ice caves. These new findings will assist in the search for life on Mars by helping scientists improve sanitation and sterilization of equipment sent to Mars in order to prevent false identification of Martian organisms. NASA will also use this knowledge to improve the facilities where spacecraft is built to prevent microbial life and dust from contaminating the instruments and invalidate experimental data collected on missions to Mars. NASA hoped to create a catalogue of clean-room microbes to increase the probability that organisms will not be misidentified as Martian in origin.
NASA has since used a technique called ribosomal RNA gene-sequencing to discover that the total number of bacteria and the amount of species was much higher than previously believed. Clean rooms such as those used in space shuttle construction are considered to be extreme environments in which life should not thrive, though some species of microbes are adapted to this type of habitat. This finding has implications for areas such as hospital sanitation and industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, where sterility is of utmost importance.

Viking Data May Hide New Evidence for Life

This article, while a few years old, discusses the possibility that the first scientific mission to Mars, the twin Viking Lander, may have actually found some evidence on the planet, contrary to what was thought at the time. When the lander originally made it to the planet, the instruments on-board found no evidence that there was any organic life on the planet. This may possibly change, though. When reviewing Antarctic samples containing certain microbial life before the Mars mission, the instruments used were unable to detect organic material in samples known to contain microbial life. This then brings the results that life is not present on Mars into question. Furthermore, another instrument that collected data on Mars was found to have organic material within its collection chamber following the mission. It seems now that, following recent research about the inability of the Viking Lander's instruments to detect organic material left behind by microbial life, that the possibility of life on Mars is one that is in need of more exploration and study.

TOP 10 Most Amazoning Discoveries on MARS

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/top10_rover_discovery.html This is a really cool site that takes you on a fantastic virtual tour of Mars' s TOP 10 most amazing discoveries. Discoveries include earthlike clouds on mars, the first picture of earth taken from the surface of another planet, evidence of magma and water mixing, the first metiorite found on another planet, the fact that mars probably sticks like rotten eggs and TACOMA, and oh of course difinitive evidence of prior existence of water on mars heyoooo.

Biomass of Martian Soil

This article gives a look into a finding made by a professor in Germany who has stated that the martian soil collected from NASA Viking landers may be of a biological orgin of organisms that have cells filled of hydrogen peroxide and water. The samples collected were analyized and found to have oxygen and carbon dioxide levels rise unexpectantly. If they were produced by the breakdown of organic material they can calculate the total biomass in the sample of the Martain soil.

It has been found that these hydrogen peroxide-water based organisms would be able to handle the cold harsh weather of Mars. Hydrogen peroxide has a freezing level of -55.6 degrees C. If these organisms were exposed to warm weather they would dehydrate.

This finding has caused a stir within the scientific community.

Rovers begin new observations on changing Martian atmosphere

This article focuses on recent discoveries by the two Mars rovers, the Spirit and Opportunity. On Mars, seasonal fluctuations in the concentration of atmospheric argon have been detected in the past with instruments designed by the University of Chicago. The changing concentrations of argon indicated that the atmospheric mixing between the polar and equatorial regions was more significant than originally predicted. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity have recently collected atmospheric samples of argon concentration at ground level and in the upper atmosphere.
The article goes on to report the data collection completed by these two rovers. Their activities include soil collection and the exploration of the site of a meteorite impact, (Heat Shield Rock). APXS on Spirit recently found soil with a 90% composition of silica, which is a strong indication that processes involving water were once existent on Mars at the site of collection, Gusuv Crater.
Currently the Opportunity rover has reached the Victoria crater and collected images of the sedimentation as well as soil samples. NASA scientists are attempting to select a potential route for the rover to reach the crater floor, but dust storms hinder its progress.

Pheonix looking for life in Northern Hemisphere of Mars

This article talks about NASA's Pheonix landing in 2008 on Mars to take a look at the enviornment. More specfically at if Mars was able or has been able more recently to support life. The specific place they are looking at is in the icy Northern hemisphere. In the past it was a little more warmer with a greater chance of supporting human life. They are looking into if life could grow or has ever grown in this part of Mars and they are recieving information via the trenches being dugged out by the Pheonix about 1.6 meters deep into the icy surface. The robotic arm will collect the samples where there then the 8 different ovens and labatories upon the Pheonix will analyize the samples. The specfic elements looked into are carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen.

The Pheonix is not a rover it will remain where it lands.

The first thing in order to finding possible life is finding a place that could be habitiable. The carbon dioxide snows are recorded to reach minus 195 degrees farenheit during the winters. Because the planet's axis of roation changes the sunlight is different in every area. And due to that the place where the Pheonix lands may have been warm about 25,000 years ago.

Scientists Say Wobbles of Mars Produced 40 Ice Ages

Norbert Schorghofer of the University of Hawaii's Astrobiology Institute has claimed that the wobble of Mars could be the answer to the mysterious patches of ice on the mid-latitudes of Mars. Various spacecraft have revealed evidence of multiple ice ages on Mars. The only visible ice on Mars has been on the polar caps in the past (as shown in the above picture of the North Polar Ice Cap). However, orbiting probes have recently found evidence for vast sheets of underground ice near the planet's equator (as seen in the picture below of Kasei Vallis, one of the largest outflow channels on Mars).


The Earth's rotation axis is tilted by about 23.5 degrees, which is fairly fixed due to the Moon's gravitational influence. However, the tilt of Mars can vary as much as 10 degrees from its current 25-degree angle. These wobbles can cause vast amounts of ice to shift every 120,000 years. When the planet's axis sways one way, sunlight vanishes from some areas and increased in others. The areas in direct sunlight became warmer, causing the ice to recede. When the ice receded, it provided plenty of water vapor for new ice to form in the areas where there was less sunlight (this can be seen in the model below). Schorghofer believes that when the Phoenix lander arrives on the surface in 2008, it will see the abundant and layered ice forms.

Scientists Seek Scent of Life in Methane at Mars

This article was written in 2004, so it may be a bit out of date, but it is really interesting. According to this article, the presence of methane in an atmosphere is a likely indication of life, as it often is produced as the bi-product of biological processes like fermentation. Active volcanoes also may produce amounts of methane. Methane usually would not stay in an atmosphere more than a couple hundred years because it reforms into other compounds over time, such as water and carbon dioxide, so without a means of continuous production, methane often disappears out of the atmosphere. However, a probe from the European Space Agency, or ESA, designed to discover the presence of various molecules and particles through the reading of spectral analysis, discovered traces of methane in the atmosphere of Mars. Every atom or molecule we have encountered emits a specific wavelength of energy that takes up a known location in the color spectrum. By looking at these emissions, one can detect which elements are present. The probe picked up emissions that are known to have come from methane. Does this indicate the presence of life, or perhaps an active volcano on Mars, or could there be some other explanation?

Searching for Life on Mars

This article takes a look into ExoMars's from the European Space Agency, sending and instrument in the Pasteur that can detect organic molecules and classes of molecules on Mars. It is detected with a 'Life Marker Chip'.  The purpose of finding these molecules are for further antibody development. By finding as many organic molecules as possible a 'detailed distribution of compounds' are likely to be produced, increasing knowledge of Mars surface and even the gradients under the surface. Either by drilling or excavating , the search for irridants and oxidations will help find nonterrestrial evidence.