TY - JOUR
T1 - Mars methane detection and variability at Gale crater
AU - Webster, Christopher R.
AU - Mahaffy, Paul R.
AU - Atreya, Sushil K.
AU - Flesch, Gregory J.
AU - Mischna, Michael A.
AU - Meslin, Pierre-Yves
AU - Farley, Kenneth A.
AU - Conrad, Pamela G.
AU - Christensen, Lance E.
AU - Pavlov, Alexander A.
AU - Martin-Torres, Javier
AU - Zorzano, María-Paz
AU - McConnochie, Timothy H.
AU - Owen, Tobias
AU - Eigenbrode, Jennifer L.
AU - Glavin, Daniel P.
AU - Steele, Andrew
AU - Malespin, Charles A.
AU - Jr., P. Douglas Archer
AU - Sutter, Brad
AU - Coll, Patrice
AU - Freissinet, Caroline
AU - McKay, Christopher P.
AU - Moores, John E.
AU - Schwenzer, Susanne P.
AU - Bridges, John C.
AU - Navarro‐González, Rafael
AU - Gellert, Ralf
AU - Lemmon, Mark T.
AU - MSL Science Team
PY - 2015/1/23
Y1 - 2015/1/23
N2 - Reports of plumes or patches of methane in the Martian atmosphere that vary over monthly timescales have defied explanation to date. From in situ measurements made over a 20-month period by the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on Curiosity at Gale Crater, we report detection of background levels of atmospheric methane of mean value 0.69 ± 0.25 ppbv at the 95% confidence interval (CI). This abundance is lower than model estimates of ultraviolet (UV) degradation of accreted interplanetary dust particles (IDP’s) or carbonaceous chondrite material. Additionally, in four sequential measurements spanning a 60-sol period, we observed elevated levels of methane of 7.2 ± 2.1 (95% CI) ppbv implying that Mars is episodically producing methane from an additional unknown source.
AB - Reports of plumes or patches of methane in the Martian atmosphere that vary over monthly timescales have defied explanation to date. From in situ measurements made over a 20-month period by the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on Curiosity at Gale Crater, we report detection of background levels of atmospheric methane of mean value 0.69 ± 0.25 ppbv at the 95% confidence interval (CI). This abundance is lower than model estimates of ultraviolet (UV) degradation of accreted interplanetary dust particles (IDP’s) or carbonaceous chondrite material. Additionally, in four sequential measurements spanning a 60-sol period, we observed elevated levels of methane of 7.2 ± 2.1 (95% CI) ppbv implying that Mars is episodically producing methane from an additional unknown source.
U2 - 10.1126/science.1261713
DO - 10.1126/science.1261713
M3 - Article
VL - 347
SP - 415
EP - 417
JO - Science
JF - Science
SN - 0036-8075
IS - 6220
ER -
