Why is it important to find methane gas on Mars?

So far, the presence of methane on the surface and in the atmosphere of Mars as well as the sources of emissions of gas is still a mystery.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU), meeting in the Vienna capital (Austria) from April 7 to 12, 2019, held a major press conference to officially announce the first result. First of all measurements made by the probe TGO (Trace Gas Orbiter) orbiting Mars. This is the ExoMars program , with the mission to provide the exact composition of this planetary atmosphere, especially if there are traces of methane found.

And at the press conference, astrophysicist Jean-Loup Bertaux, an important figure in the ExoMars program, announced: 'The most important result that exploration TGO provides is the absence of gas. methane in Mars' atmosphere.

So why is methane gas problem present on Mars so important?

The ship explored TGO flying around Mars.

Return to ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) . This is a two-phase cosmological project to find evidence of life on Mars, a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos. In the first phase of the project, on March 14, 2016, the program launched the TGO probe and a fixed landing ship named Schiaparelli to Mars.

Seven months later, October 2016, TGO and Schiaparelli reached the orbit of Mars. The task of TGO is to map methane sources as well as traces of other gases in the atmosphere as evidence for possible biological or geological activities. But on October 16, when the Schiaparelli experimental ship separated from TGO to land at Meridiani Planum, it crashed and crumbled on the surface of Mars.

In fact, this landing is designed to test new and safe technologies for self-propelled cars that will be brought up in the second phase of the program by 2020. It is known that the second phase ExoMars has been scheduled to launch in 2020, with a scientific mission expected to last until 2022 or longer.

So far, the presence of methane on the surface and in the atmosphere of Mars as well as the sources of emissions of gas is still a mystery. Although in fact, from the trajectory of the flight, TGO has not found traces of gas, in contrast to the results obtained from the Curiosity rover in June 2018, with the presence of methane and molecules Organic on the surface of this planet. According to astronomer Jean-Loup Bertaux at the press conference: 'We have no explanation for this contradiction'.

Go back to the issue of the importance of methane gas. Extremely simple reason: on earth, methane is primarily produced by living organisms. Therefore, the presence of such a gas on the surface of the Red Planet may be a sign of the presence of positive biological mechanisms or their traces if these gases were created. in the past, and still remain in the underground bags for example.

Or to put it more simply, where there is methane, there is life. And we all know, if a planet close to us has life, it's clear how important it is!

However, methane can also be produced by chemical reactions during oil processing, coal gas distillation as is the case with the earth. This means that methane not only comes from nature but also originates from living organisms, and so if it is from this second origin, finding the presence of methane on Mars How much more meaningful.

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