TY - JOUR
T1 - Low upper limit to methane abundance on Mars
AU - MSL Science Team
AU - Webster, Christopher R.
AU - Mahaffy, Paul R.
AU - Atreya, Sushil K.
AU - Flesch, Gregory J.
AU - Farley, Kenneth A.
AU - Kemppinen, Osku
AU - Bridges, Nathan
AU - Johnson, Jeffrey R.
AU - Minitti, Michelle
AU - Cremers, David
AU - Bell, James F.
AU - Edgar, Lauren
AU - Farmer, Jack
AU - Godber, Austin
AU - Wadhwa, Meenakshi
AU - Wellington, Danika
AU - McEwan, Ian
AU - Newman, Claire
AU - Richardson, Mark
AU - Charpentier, Antoine
AU - Peret, Laurent
AU - King, Penelope
AU - Blank, Jennifer
AU - Weigle, Gerald
AU - Schmidt, Mariek
AU - Li, Shuai
AU - Milliken, Ralph
AU - Robertson, Kevin
AU - Sun, Vivian
AU - Baker, Michael
AU - Edwards, Christopher
AU - Ehlmann, Bethany
AU - Farley, Kenneth
AU - Griffes, Jennifer
AU - Grotzinger, John
AU - Miller, Hayden
AU - Newcombe, Megan
AU - Pilorget, Cedric
AU - Rice, Melissa
AU - Siebach, Kirsten
AU - Stack, Katie
AU - Stolper, Edward
AU - Brunet, Claude
AU - Hipkin, Victoria
AU - Léveillé, Richard
AU - Marchand, Geneviève
AU - Sánchez, Pablo Sobrón
AU - Favot, Laurent
AU - Cody, George
AU - Hardgrove, Craig
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - By analogy with Earth, methane in the Martian atmosphere is a potential signature of ongoing or past biological activity. During the past decade, Earth-based telescopic observations reported "plumes" of methane of tens of parts per billion by volume (ppbv), and those from Mars orbit showed localized patches, prompting speculation of sources from subsurface bacteria or nonbiological sources. From in situ measurements made with the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) on Curiosity using a distinctive spectral pattern specific to methane, we report no detection of atmospheric methane with a measured value of 0.18 ± 0.67 ppbv corresponding to an upper limit of only 1.3 ppbv (95% confidence level), which reduces the probability of current methanogenic microbial activity on Mars and limits the recent contribution from extraplanetary and geologic sources.
AB - By analogy with Earth, methane in the Martian atmosphere is a potential signature of ongoing or past biological activity. During the past decade, Earth-based telescopic observations reported "plumes" of methane of tens of parts per billion by volume (ppbv), and those from Mars orbit showed localized patches, prompting speculation of sources from subsurface bacteria or nonbiological sources. From in situ measurements made with the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) on Curiosity using a distinctive spectral pattern specific to methane, we report no detection of atmospheric methane with a measured value of 0.18 ± 0.67 ppbv corresponding to an upper limit of only 1.3 ppbv (95% confidence level), which reduces the probability of current methanogenic microbial activity on Mars and limits the recent contribution from extraplanetary and geologic sources.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.1242902
DO - 10.1126/science.1242902
M3 - Article
C2 - 24051245
AN - SCOPUS:84885847381
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 342
SP - 355
EP - 357
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6156
ER -