'Fart gas' discovered on Mars –but is it alien?

Despite a promising find of simple organic compounds on Martian soil that may indicate life, the search for life itself by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Curiosity rover —and the team behind it— may yet remain a long, uncertain one.

 

The probe’s science team still cannot say for certain at this time if the carbon found in these Martian materials is indigenous to Mars, Wired.com reported.

 

“When we look in the soil we see a bunch of chemicals in there,” said geologist John Grotzinger of Caltech, project scientist for the mission.

 

He added that while they are "doing science at the speed of science,” a single experiment now or in the future is not likely to produce a “hallelujah moment.”

 

Flatulent 'Fart gas'

 

Earlier, Curiosity's instruments found water, sulfur, and chlorine-containing compounds, including chlorinated methane gas —the same gas produced as a byproduct of animal metabolism and commonly associated with flatulence— in a small sample of Martian dust.

 

The rover had heated the sample in a small internal oven, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, and then analyzed the resulting gases were released.

 

SAM also used a laser spectrometer to determine the isotopes of atoms in the sample, which could help understand the history of water and other elements on Mars.

 

Was it Curiosity's fault?

 

But Curiosity’s team thinks heating the soil sample caused the perchlorates to release chlorine, which bonds to other gases such as carbon dioxide, and could have produced the chlorinated methane.

 

Wired.com said previous missions such as Viking and the Phoenix lander had shown Martian soil contains perchlorate salts, harsh compounds that tend to destroy any organic molecules when heated.

 

It added that while Mars’ atmosphere contains carbon dioxide, the team also said the carbon may simply have been carried from Earth in small amounts.

 

The next step now is determining which of these scenarios is more likely, Wired.com said.

 

Long road ahead

 

"Even if the carbon came from Mars, there will still be a long road to figuring out how it came to be in the soil. The most likely explanation is that it rained to the surface on meteorites and comets, which commonly contain many complex organic compounds," it said.

 

And even if the carbon molecules were created on Mars, it will take time to determine if they are traces of past life, it added.

 

Meanwhile, with later results expected to provide more interesting results about life, the scientists are pleased with their analysis for now.

 

The team aims to use its analysis as a baseline to compare with other samples taken from protected places deep underground or in billion-year-old rocks.

 

“Curiosity’s middle name is patience. And we all have to have a healthy dose of that,” said Grotzinger. — TJD, GMA News