Why does methane seep on Mars? NASA scientists have new ideas

Living things produce most of the methane on Earth. But scientists have found no convincing signs of current or ancient life on Mars, so they didn’t expect to find methane there. Yet Curiosity’s portable chemistry laboratory, known as SAM, or Sample Analysis at Mars, has continuously sniffed out traces of the gas near the surface of Gale Crater, the only place on the Martian surface so far where methane has been found. detected. The likely source, scientists believe, is geological mechanisms involving water and rocks deep underground.