NASA's Curiosity Unable to Detect Methane on Mars

NASA's Curiosity rover was unable to find any traces of methane in the Martian environment; this finding negates the previously believed theories about the existence of life on the red planet.

Methane is an organic compound, which is found in Earth's atmosphere. Scientists were extremely curious to detect the presence of methane on the planet as it aids life form.

"This important result will help direct our efforts to examine the possibility of life on Mars," Michael Meyer, NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration said in a press release.

"It reduces the probability of current methane-producing Martian microbes, but this addresses only one type of microbial metabolism. As we know, there are many types of terrestrial microbes that don't generate methane."

A space craft orbiting around Mars and telescopes analyzing the planet from Earth claimed that Mars was releasing huge clouds of methane in 2003.  Scientists tried searching for the presence of methane in Martian atmosphere six times from October 2012 through June and found nothing.

"It would have been exciting to find methane, but we have high confidence in our measurements, and the progress in expanding knowledge is what's really important," said Chris Webster, the principal investigator on Curiosity's TLS (Tuneable Laser Spectrometer), of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"We measured repeatedly from Martian spring to late summer, but with no detection of methane," Webster added.

The curiosity rover has been searching for methane on the red planet for over a year. The data rover collected could not distinguish any methane within the present limits of the TLS's sensitivity.

"Based on previous measurements, we were expecting to go there and find 10 parts per billion (ppbv) or more, and we were excited about finding it," Webster said, reports Counsel & Heal.

Though the researchers know about the nature of methane and how long it lasts, they are unaware of the reason for its quick disappearance from the Martian atmosphere.

"Methane is a very well understood gas that is quite stable. We know how long it lasts and how it is destroyed over decades," Webster said.

"While it is conceivable that something exists in the Martian atmosphere that destroys methane at a much faster pace than on Earth, we have no evidence, no observations of what it might be," he added.

In 2016, a European satellite will be launched to Mars with the mission of detecting gases such as methane, a National Geographic report said.