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, Alexer A.
AU - Martín-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 - Archer, P. Douglas
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-Gonzalez, Rafael
AU - Gellert, Ralf
AU - Lemmon, Mark T.
AU - King, Penny
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/1/23
Y1 - 2015/1/23
N2 - Reports of plumes or patches of methane in the martian atmosphere that vary over monthly time scales have defied explanation to date. From in situ measurements made over a 20-month period by the tunable laser spectrometer of the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite on Curiosity at Gale crater, we report detection of background levels of atmospheric methane of mean value 0.69 ± 0.25 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) at the 95% confidence interval (CI). This abundance is lower than model estimates of ultraviolet degradation of accreted interplanetary dust particles or carbonaceous chondrite material. Additionally, in four sequential measurements spanning a 60-sol period (where 1 sol is a martian day), we observed elevated levels of methane of 7.2 ± 2.1 ppbv (95% CI), 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 time scales have defied explanation to date. From in situ measurements made over a 20-month period by the tunable laser spectrometer of the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite on Curiosity at Gale crater, we report detection of background levels of atmospheric methane of mean value 0.69 ± 0.25 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) at the 95% confidence interval (CI). This abundance is lower than model estimates of ultraviolet degradation of accreted interplanetary dust particles or carbonaceous chondrite material. Additionally, in four sequential measurements spanning a 60-sol period (where 1 sol is a martian day), we observed elevated levels of methane of 7.2 ± 2.1 ppbv (95% CI), implying that Mars is episodically producing methane from an additional unknown source.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84921810855
U2 - 10.1126/science.1261713
DO - 10.1126/science.1261713
M3 - Article
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 347
SP - 415
EP - 417
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6220
ER -