NASA, the United States space agency has discovered sudden fluctuations in the Martian oxygen level. Scientists made this finding after Curiosity Rover measured the seasonal changes in the gas that fills the air above the Gale Crater. The new finding has literally shocked NASA scientists, and as of now, they have no explanation for the unusual oxygen level fluctuation on the Red Planet.
Sushil Atreya, professor of climate and space sciences at the University of Michigan revealed that the new discovery is mind-boggling, and he made it clear that this is for the first time that such a discovery is being made in the Red Planet. The sudden change in oxygen levels was noticed just a few months after NASA scientists spotted unusual methane fluctuation on Mars, and interestingly, scientists have no idea behind the change in these gaseous levels.
During the study that spanned over three Martian years, experts noted that gases like nitrogen and argon behaved predictably throughout the year. Initially, scientists believed that oxygen will also behave as per prediction, but they were shocked to find that it, in fact, rose through the spring and summer. As the oxygen level variation continued, scientists now speculate that oxygen is produced and removed from the air in a cyclic manner.
"We're struggling to explain this. The fact that oxygen behavior isn't perfectly repeatable every season makes us think that it's not an issue that has to do with atmospheric dynamics. It has to be some chemical source and sink that we can't yet account for," said Melissa Trainer, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt who led the study, Science Alert reports.
The sudden spike in oxygen and methane levels has now made many conspiracy theorists believe that alien beings, at least in its microbial forms might be living on Mars. Interestingly, a few weeks back, Dr Jim Green, a chief NASA scientist had predicted that alien life will be discovered on Mars within 2021. He also added that the world is not prepared to accept the facts of extraterrestrial existence.
