Low upper limit to methane abundance on Mars


Por: Mahaffy P.R., Atreya S.K., Flesch G.J., Farley K.A., Bridges N., Johnson J.R., Minitti M., Cremers D., Bell J.F., III, Edgar L., Farmer J., Godber A., Wadhwa M., Wellington D., McEwan I., Newman C., Richardson M., Charpentier A., Peret L., King P., Blank J., Weigle G., Schmidt M., Li S., Milliken R., Robertson K., Sun V., Baker M., Edwards C., Farley K., Griffes J., Grotzinger J., Miller H., Newcombe M., Pilorget C., Rice M., Siebach K., Stack K., Stolper E., Brunet C., Hipkin V., Léveillé R., Marchand G., Sánchez P.S., Favot L., Cody G., Steele A., Flückiger L., Lees D., Nefian A., Martin M., Gailhanou M., Westall F., Agard C., Baroukh J., Donny C., Gaboriaud A., Guillemot P., Lafaille V., Lorigny E., Paillet A., Pérez R., Saccoccio M., Yana C., Aparicio C.A., Rodríguez J.C., Blázquez I.C., Gómez F.G., Elvira J.G., Hettrich S., Malvitte A.L., Jiménez M.M., Martínez-Frías J., Soler J.M., Martín-Torres F.J., Jurado A.M., Mora-Sotomayor L., Caro G.M., López S.N., Peinado-González V., Pla-García J., Rodriguez Manfredi J.A., Romeral-Planelló J.J., Sans Fuentes S.A., Martinez E.S., Redondo J.T., Urqui-O'Callaghan R., Mier M.-P.Z., Chipera S., Lacour J.-L., Mauchien P., Sirven J.-B., Manning H., Fairén A., Hayes A., Joseph J., Squyres S., Sullivan R., Thomas P., Dupont A., Lundberg A., Melikechi N., Mezzacappa A., DeMarines J., Grinspoon D., Reitz G., Prats B., Genzer M., Harri A.-M., Haukka H., Kahanpää H., Kauhanen J., Kemppinen O., Paton M., Polkko J., Schmidt W., Siili T., Fabre C., Wray J., Poitrasson F., Patel K., Gorevan S., Indyk S., Paulsen G., Gupta S., Bish D., Schieber J., Gondet B., Langevin Y., Geffroy C., Baratoux D., Berger G., Cros A., d'Uston C., Forni O., Gasnault O., Lasue J., Lee Q.-M., Maurice S., Meslin P.-Y., Pallier E., Parot Y., Pinet P., Schröder S., Toplis M., Lewin É., Brunner W., Heydari E., Achilles C., Oehler D., Sutter B., Cabane M., Coscia D., Israël G., Szopa C., Dromart G., Robert F., Sautter V., Le Mouélic S., Mangold N., Nachon M., Buch A., Stalport F., Coll P., François P., Raulin F., Teinturier S., Cameron J., Clegg S., Cousin A., DeLapp D., Dingler R., Jackson R.S., Johnstone S., Lanza N., Little C., Nelson T., Wiens R.C., Williams R.B., Kirkland L., Treiman A., Baker B., Cantor B., Caplinger M., Davis S., Duston B., Edgett K., Fay D., Hardgrove C., Harker D., Herrera P., Jensen E., Kennedy M.R., Krezoski G., Krysak D., Lipkaman L., Malin M., McCartney E., McNair S., Nixon B., Posiolova L., Ravine M., Salamon A., Saper L., Stoiber K., Supulver K., Van Beek J., Van Beek T., Zimdar R., French K.L., Iagnemma K., Miller K., Summons R., Goesmann F., Goetz W., Hviid S., Johnson M., Lefavor M., Lyness E., Breves E., Darby Dyar M., Fassett C., Blake D.F., Bristow T., DesMarais D., Edwards L., Haberle R., Hoehler T., Hollingsworth J., Kahre M., Keely L., McKay C., Wilhelm M.B., Bleacher L., Brinckerhoff W., Choi D., Conrad P., Dworkin J.P., Eigenbrode J., Floyd M., Freissinet C., Garvin J., Glavin D., Harpold D., Jones A., Mahaffy P., Martin D.K., McAdam A., Pavlov A., Raaen E., Smith M.D., Stern J., Tan F., Trainer M., Meyer M., Posner A., Voytek M., Anderson R.C., Aubrey A., Beegle L.W., Behar A., Blaney D., Brinza D., Calef F., Christensen L., Crisp J.A., DeFlores L., Ehlmann B., Feldman J., Feldman S., Flesch G., Hurowitz J., Jun I., Keymeulen D., Maki J., Mischna M., Morookian J.M., Parker T., Pavri B., Schoppers M., Sengstacken A., Simmonds J.J., Spanovich N., de la Torre Juarez M., Vasavada A.R., Webster C.R., Yen A., Archer P.D., Cucinotta F., Jones J.H., Ming D., Morris R.V., Niles P., Rampe E., Nolan T., Fisk M., Radziemski L., Barraclough B., Bender S., Berman D., Dobrea E.N., Tokar R., Vaniman D., Williams R.M.E., Yingst A., Lewis K., Leshin L., Cleghorn T., Huntress W., Manhès G., Hudgins J., Olson T., Stewart N., Sarrazin P., Grant J., Vicenzi E., Wilson S.A., Bullock M., Ehresmann B., Hamilton V., Hassler D., Peterson J., Rafkin S., Zeitlin C., Fedosov F., Golovin D., Karpushkina N., Kozyrev A., Litvak M., Malakhov A., Mitrofanov I., Mokrousov M., Nikiforov S., Prokhorov V., Sanin A., Tretyakov V., Varenikov A., Vostrukhin A., Clark B., Wolff M., McLennan S., Botta O., Drake D., Bean K., Lemmon M., Schwenzer S.P., Anderson R.B., Herkenhoff K., Lee E.M., Sucharski R., de Pablo Hernández M.Á., Blanco Ávalos J.J., Ramos M., Kim M.-H., Malespin C., Plante I., Muller J.-P., Navarro-González R., Ewing R., Boynton W., Downs R., Fitzgibbon M., Harshman K., Morrison S., Dietrich W., Kortmann O., Palucis M., Sumner D.Y., Williams A., Lugmair G., Wilson M.A., Rubin D., Jakosky B., Balic-Zunic T., Frydenvang J., Jensen J.K., Kinch K., Koefoed A., Madsen M.B., Svane Stipp S.L., Boyd N., Campbell J.L., Gellert R., Perrett G., Pradler I., VanBommel S., Jacob S., Owen T., Rowland S., Atlaskin E., Savijärvi H., Boehm E., Böttcher S., Burmeister S., Guo J., Köhler J., García C.M., Mueller-Mellin R., Wimmer-Schweingruber R., Bridges J.C., McConnochie T., Benna M., Franz H., Bower H., Brunner A., Blau H., Boucher T., Carmosino M., Atreya S., Elliott H., Halleaux D., Rennó N., Wong M., Pepin R., Elliott B., Spray J., Thompson L., Gordon S., Newsom H., Ollila A., Williams J., Vasconcelos P., Bentz J., Nealson K., Popa R., Kah L.C., Moersch J., Tate C., Day M., Kocurek G., Hallet B., Sletten R., Francis R., McCullough E., Cloutis E., ten Kate I.L., Kuzmin R., Arvidson R., Fraeman A., Scholes D., Slavney S., Stein T., Ward J., Berger J., Moores J.E.

Publicada: 1 ene 2013
Resumen:
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.

Filiaciones:
Mahaffy P.R.:
 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States

Atreya S.K.:
 Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States

Flesch G.J.:
 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States

Farley K.A.:
 Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States

Farley K.:
 Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States

Mahaffy P.:
 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States

Flesch G.:
 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States

Webster C.R.:
 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States

Atreya S.:
 Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
ISSN: 00368075
Editorial
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE, 1200 NEW YORK AVE, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20005 USA, Estados Unidos America
Tipo de documento: Article
Volumen: 342 Número: 6156
Páginas: 355-357
WOS Id: 000325755100043
ID de PubMed: 24051245

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