The Methane on Mars That Only One Spacecraft Can Find
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The Methane on Mars That Only One Spacecraft Can Find
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Narrated by:
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In June 2019, NASA's Curiosity rover measured the highest concentration of methane it had ever detected on Mars. Days later, it was gone.
Curiosity has been finding traces of methane in Gale Crater for more than a decade. But the Trace Gas Orbiter — an instrument far more sensitive and built specifically to detect gases like methane — has never found it. The contradiction has survived years of investigation, and recent research has raised an uncomfortable possibility: the methane may be coming from Mars, disappearing through chemistry we don't understand, or partly coming from Curiosity itself.
As of 2026, there is still no consensus explanation.
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IN THIS EPISODE
— The methane spikes measured by Curiosity in Gale Crater
— Why the Trace Gas Orbiter should see methane but doesn't
— How Martian nights may trap gas close to the surface
— The evidence that Curiosity itself could be contaminating the measurements
SOURCES
NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Nature, 2019
Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2021
Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 2025
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Narration in this episode is AI-assisted. Research, writing, and editorial decisions are human.
Reality Is Strange — real phenomena, verified, and stranger than they should be.
