New hope of martian life sparked by methane found in meteorites

Life on Mars has yet to be discovered, but a recent study furthers the hope that someday it could be.

Methane was found within the interior pockets of 6 meteorites originating from the Red Planet.

The gas is known to have life-supporting abilities, and there are bacteria here on Earth that survive on it.

They often live in the methane rich yet oxygen deprived sludge found at the bottom of lakes and rivers.

As those organisms thrive beneath the planet's surface here, scientists say there could be some on Mars doing the same.

According to one of the study's authors, "Even if Martian methane does not directly feed microbes, it may signal the presence of a warm, wet, chemically reactive environment where life could thrive."

The underground habitat he describes is markedly different than the one existing on the surface of Mars. It's constantly being pummeled by radiation and its temperatures drop as low minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit.

The meteorites used in the study were gathered from numerous museums. They were crushed and then analyzed by taking readings of gasses emitting from them.

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