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you

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my name is Michael Mumma I work at the

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Goddard Space Flight Center for the

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National Aeronautics and Space

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Administration in Greenbelt Maryland

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our team has discovered methane on Mars

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the surprising thing about methane on

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Mars is that first that we detect it

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meaning its recently generated but in

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addition we find that it's being

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released from several discrete vents or

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sites on the planet's surface

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in either midsummer in the northern

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hemisphere or early spring in the

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southern hemisphere on Mars and yet at a

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later season we see essentially no

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methane the big question is what is the

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origin of this methane and now being

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released the two principal areas are

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first by analogy with the earth it could

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be released and produced initially

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primarily by biology this would be

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microbial activity acting on certain

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chemicals below the surface and then

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producing methane as a by-product but of

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course we can't state with certitude

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that it is biologically produced and so

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we also consider do chemical mechanisms

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in which carbon dioxide is actually

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combining with water

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and producing methane under very high

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temperatures and pressures and that

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methane can then be released in the

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atmosphere separately one of the most

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important consequences of our

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discoveries is that we've identified

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certain signposts on Mars that basically

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are like little flags that say come here

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Here I am nASA has several missions

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along these lines one is called the Mars

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Science Laboratory one of the key

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objectives is to understand whether life

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ever arose on Mars by sampling the

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material on the surface and then eval

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waiting that in terms of its origins you

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can then can appreciate that if you go

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to this right location you may in fact