On Earth, all carbon-metabolising organisms leave an isotopic signature of their metabolism in the products, especially respiratory/photosynthetic ones. There is a tiny fractionation between Carbon-12 and Carbon-13 (these are both long-term stable isotopes of carbon, unlike the unstable Carbon-14 that originates in earth's atmosphere from cosmic-ray bombardment of Nitrogen.
Carbon fractionation is noted in methane (CH4) and in CO2, and other carbon-containing molecules of biologic origin.
It is *likely* but not *certain* that other styles of carbon metabolism would also have an isotopic signature. The signature is too week to detect remotely - you must visit the locality and sample the gas, concentrate the methane, and put the concentrate through a mass spectrometer, and THEN compare to a reference sample from Mars that is "not" biologic (e.g. the CO2 of the atmosphere).
All this requires us to narrow-down the emission region and then actually visit it with a mobile lab capable of hunting for a vent or crack and then sampling and measuring it...
Space/Science » in reply to And Venus may have had continents and oceans
Biologic vs Chemical origins
The whole thread (30 posts)
- update about methane on mars
- Anyone got as link to WHICH areas these are seen in?
- And Venus may have had continents and oceans
- Astronomy Magazine had an article about that in the 1980’s
- Dang!
- Re: is there any way to tell the difference if methane is produced by organisms or geology with remote methods?
- Biologic vs Chemical origins
- About Venus