Scientists head to Nunavut island to help solve Mars methane mystery

A team of researchers hastravelled to a remote Arctic island in the hopeof betterunderstanding the possibility of life on Mars.

Astrobiologist Haley Sapers, an adjunct professor at YorkUniversity in the Lassonde School of Engineering, is leading theteam at the McGill Arctic Research Station, or MARS, on Axel HeibergIsland. The uninhabited island is in Nunavut's Qikiqtaaluk regionand has conditions similar to the red planet.

Under the 24-hour midnight sun, they plan to study super-saltycold springs that release methane on Gypsum Hill, about a 45-minutehike from the research station. They also plan to take methanereadings from the atmosphere and carry out a simulated Mars Rovermission.

"Methane is a really important atmospheric gas here on Earthbecause it contributes significantly to global warming," saidSapers, a visiting scientist with the California Institute ofTechnology. "It's also a really interesting gas on Mars and wedon't understand exactly where it's coming from or where it'sdisappearing to."

On Earth, Sapers said, most methane is biogenic, meaning it'sproduced by living organisms. The gas can also be produced bygeological processes.

Its presence on Mars could be evidence of past or present life,or indicate areas on the planet that could be inhabited in thefuture.

Scientists first detected trace amounts of methane in the Marsatmosphere in 2003 and have continued to be perplexed by it.

Sapers said an instrument on the Curiousity rover has to takesamples from the Martian atmosphere over several hours to enrichmethane to where it can be analyzed. She said there aren't manymeasurements of methane from the surface of Mars.

"We need a new type of instrument that doesn't take as manyresources that can take really fast, really sensitive measurementsof methane," she said.

On Axel Heiberg Island, the research team plans to test a newinstrument developed with ABB Inc., a technology and engineeringcompany based in Quebec, that aims to do just that.

Sapers said they also plan to complete detailed sampling ofmicro-organisms that have previously been detected by scientistsfrom McGill University in the sediment of the island's hyper-salinecold springs. She said they want to determine whether thosemicro-organisms oxidize methane, like those she has studied in deepocean methane seeps.

"Understanding more about these micro-organisms up in the Arcticmight help us understand the potential for micro-organisms toprevent significant amounts of methane from being released in thesubsurface of the Arctic," she said.

"That would be reallyimportant, especially in the context of climate change and globalwarming."

Sapers said the polar desert island is the ideal place to do thisresearch as it is the only place on Earth where hyper-saline coldsprings that are methane seeps are situated in permafrost similarto subsurface conditions on Mars.

The planet and island also both have cold and dry conditions, shesaid, and polygonal terrain a type of patterned ground that formsin permafrost regions on Earth by freezing and thawing.

"It is wonderful to be up here," she said. "It is a veryexciting place to do research."

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Metaand Canadian Press News Fellowship, which is not involved in the editorial process.