NASA’s rover may have solved the mysteries of methane on Mars

A few years ago Curiosity roaming with its own measuring instruments methane On the Mars registered. These results were a clear indication of the previous results Organic life formsBecause methane is usually a by-product of microorganisms.

Such as European Space Agency’s Mars probe, The ExoMars orbital gas tracking (TGO), he also wanted to look at methane, however, the probe can No methane Discovered on Mars. This is made for astonishment The search teams were stunned.

Latest knowledge can now one Explanation availability of this phenomenon. Accordingly, the reason for the different measurement results is the way the Mars rover and the ESA’s Mars rover work.

Cross check explains the mysteries of methane

The Curiosity roaming A tunable laser spectrometer (TLS) can be used to detect methane. Usually power-hungry TLS works At nightSo as not to disturb other measuring instruments. The Orbiting Mars TGO However, he usually makes his measurements in a dayTo take advantage of the sunlight.

to me cross check To be able to do this, Curiosity also attempted to track methane during the day. In fact, methane cannot be detected near Earth in broad daylight.

Researchers now hypothesize that methane concentrates and becomes part of the cold Martian nights daylightThe solar radiation and the heat generated Dissolves. These results were recently Published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Other questions raised

While this puzzle is solved to some extent, it is being solved Another question On. Because usually methane must be stable enough that it collects in the atmosphere, and therefore must also be recognized by the Mars orbiter.

Now researchers are looking into the question of why methane could degrade in this way in daylight. It must now be determined if there is one faster on Mars decomposition process For methane and which one it could be, as they say Broadcast by NASA.