Mars has always been a fascinating object for humans. Many books have been written about Mars, one of them being The War Of Worlds. This has been the interest of Mars in fiction, but till date we have not found any evidence whether there is life on Mars or not. But so far we have not found evidence of micro. But in the last 15, 20, 30 years, evidence is slowly being found. And because of this evidence, today we know that there is still water under the surface of Mars. And we also know that there was an ocean on Mars about a million years ago.
When our solar system began to form, then the atmosphere of Mars was quite thick and there was liquid water on the surface. Rather, we believe that the conditions on Mars at that time were suitable for life.
At that time, the life conditions at the time of early solar system formation were better than our earth. But whether there is life there today is a big question. If we even find a micro there, that would be a mind blowing discovery.
Today rovers are also roaming on the surface of Mars and one of them is Curiosity rover which is still working there. When he worked on a Gale Crater, he discovered that there was water under the crater.
A paper published a few years ago stated that the rover also detected gases around Gale Crater and is now measuring the composition of these gases.
Mars today’s atmosphere is much thinner than our Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere of Mars is only 1% of that of Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere of Marrs is quite thick and contains more carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has seasonal variations. Martian atmosphere has martial poles such as north pole and south pole, when carbon dioxide enters it, it condenses. Due to which there are seasonal variations.
In this way, there are other gases called trace gases such as nitrogen, argon.
Oxygen Gas on Mars
But now astronomers have analyzed oxygen in the atmosphere and oxygen does not vary seasonally like other gases.
Measured this oxygen gas for 3 years and found that the oxygen level is spring time which is much higher than average. And in winter time oxygen is much less than average. There is a significant difference in the variation of oxygen compared to nitrogen and argon.
Now why this is so interesting is because the oxygen above our earth is produced by the photosynthesis of plants. Now the question is whether the variation coming over Mars is an indication of life or not, the answer to which is not known yet.
Methane Gas on Mars
In early 2000, methane gas was also discovered in Mars. This is quite old, but it was only a year ago that the Curiosity rover found a methane burb near Gal Crater, which is also a sign of life. Because this methane burb occurs in buffaloes. Methane is an indication above ground.
So the question is, what is producing the methane on Marrs? There is no evidence about it.
Right now it’s talking about a little bit of methane. For example, the methane burb detected by the Curiosity rover is 21 pounds, which is a very small amount of methane. When the Curiosity rover detected methane again, its measurement had gone up to 1 part. This means that someone around the Curiosity rover produced the methane.
Now these results of methane and oxygen are quite interesting. This result is somewhere pointing to the fact that life can exist on Marrs. The life claim on Mars is a big claim. Scientists have to be very careful that while making a discovery, they rule out another discovery.
