Planetary scientists have just announced that they have found three regions on Mars that have pumped methane into the Martian atmosphere. Everyone seems to wonder what's generating the gas. On Earth, it can come from geological processes, but also from microbes. So the red planet can be biologically alive, geologically alive, or some combination.

The first indications of methane came via Europe's Mars Express Orbiter, as in December 2004, members of the Mars Express science team reported that they have detected methane in the atmosphere. Furthermore, the methane was not evenly distributed, as some regions displayed higher concentrations than others.

Some related studies even showed that some areas with high concentration of methane overlapped areas of unusually high concentrations of water vapor. This is another indication that Mars supported or can support life and many scientists are intrigued. However, some of them remain unconvinced, and that's because the Mars Express team was pressing the orbiter's instruments to the limits to get the data.

These latest results came from the telescopes on Hawaii's Mauna Kea. The team used them to search for methane's chemical fingerprints in spectra of the Martian atmosphere, and they kept at the effort for seven years. One gas emission discovered by them even matched with one found by the Mars Express team.

All of these make the 2011 launch of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover a highly-expected one, as it may find actual signs of life on the red planet. However, it's clear that more research is needed in order to determine whether the methane came from biological or geological sources.