Microbial Life On Mars?
Larry O'Hanlon
Discovery Channel
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Methane-making microbes inside Greenland ice could be telling us there's life on Mars, say researchers.
Newfound microbes trapped in tiny liquid pores deep in glacial ice are raising the possibility that the source of recently discovered mystery methane in Mars' atmosphere is produced by similar microbes eking out a living in the suspected ample ice buried under the planet's dry surface.The Mars methane mystery amounts to this:
On Earth, methane is produced both by microbes and volcanic activity.
Once in the atmosphere it's rapidly destroyed by sunlight.
So, the abundance of methane in the Martian breezes, despite a lack of known present-day volcanic activity, has many scientists wondering if Martian microbes are behind it.
Dec 06, 2005
Larry O'Hanlon
Discovery Channel
______________
Methane-making microbes inside Greenland ice could be telling us there's life on Mars, say researchers.
Newfound microbes trapped in tiny liquid pores deep in glacial ice are raising the possibility that the source of recently discovered mystery methane in Mars' atmosphere is produced by similar microbes eking out a living in the suspected ample ice buried under the planet's dry surface.The Mars methane mystery amounts to this:
On Earth, methane is produced both by microbes and volcanic activity.
Once in the atmosphere it's rapidly destroyed by sunlight.
So, the abundance of methane in the Martian breezes, despite a lack of known present-day volcanic activity, has many scientists wondering if Martian microbes are behind it.
Dec 06, 2005
