AlHijjah 18, 1433, Nov 3, 2012, SPA - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Mars rover Curiosity has detected no methane in its first analyses of the atmosphere, a development that could disappoint those who hope to find evidence of life on Mars. Living organisms produce more than 90 percent of the methane found in Earth's atmosphere, so scientists are eager to see if Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) spectrometer detects any of the gas in the air of Mars. “We have no detection of methane so far," Chris Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California told reporters Friday. “But we're going to keep looking in the months ahead since Mars, as we all know, may yet hold surprises for us." Scientists previously have detected methane in the Mars atmosphere, using a variety of instruments on the ground and in space. But measures concentrations of the gas have been very low. The lack of detection by Curiosity does not mean the earlier observations are incorrect, researchers said, as methane concentrations may vary by region and over time.
