Don: Ha, Ha!

Yaël: What is it, Don?

D: Mars has gas. The same stuff that's in cow farts.

Y: What are you talking about?

D: Methane. NASA has been monitoring Mars' atmosphere with spectrometers at their      Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii. A few years ago, they detected plumes of      methane in the Martian northern hemisphere, mainly during the warmer seasons. One      of those plumes contained about 19,000 metric tons.

Y: That sounds like a lot.

D: It is, but that's not the exciting part. You see, methane is the simplest hydrocarbon, a      carbon atom with four hydrogens attached. Here on Earth, organisms release      methane when they digest nutrients.

Y: You're not trying to tell me there are cows on Mars, are you?

D: Not cows, but maybe microscopic Martian life. Mars is a really cold place to live,      but it's possible that life may be growing below the permafrost line where water      would be liquid. Here on earth there are bacteria surviving on radioactive energy,      hydrogen, and sulfur that live almost two miles underground. So it is possible.

Y: Are scientists sure the methane is coming from living organisms?

D: They're not sure. Methane can be produced by geological events, too. When iron      oxide or rust is converted to other minerals it creates methane. Volcanoes release      methane, too. Even though Mars isn't volcanically active anymore, the methane from      ancient eruptions might be trapped in ice and just be escaping to the surface when      the ice thaws.

Y: So we don't know if Mars has life or not.

D: Nope, just methane gas. But that's the way science works. One discovery at a time.  

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