Mars methane detection and variability at Gale crater

被引：297

作者：

Webster, Christopher R. ^{[1
]}

Mahaffy, Paul R. ^{[2
]}

Atreya, Sushil K. ^{[3
]}

Flesch, Gregory J. ^{[1
]}

Mischna, Michael A. ^{[1
]}

Meslin, Pierre-Yves ^{[4
]}

Farley, Kenneth A. ^{[5
]}

Conrad, Pamela G. ^{[2
]}

Christensen, Lance E. ^{[1
]}

Pavlov, Alexander A. ^{[2
]}

Martin-Torres, Javier ^{[6
,7
]}

Zorzano, Maria-Paz ^{[8
]}

McConnochie, Timothy H. ^{[9
]}

Owen, Tobias ^{[10
]}

Eigenbrode, Jennifer L. ^{[2
]}

Glavin, Daniel P. ^{[2
]}

Steele, Andrew ^{[11
]}

Malespin, Charles A. ^{[2
]}

Archer, P. Douglas, Jr. ^{[12
]}

Sutter, Brad ^{[12
]}

Coll, Patrice ^{[13
]}

Freissinet, Caroline ^{[2
]}

McKay, Christopher P. ^{[14
]}

Moores, John E. ^{[15
]}

Schwenzer, Susanne P. ^{[16
]}

Bridges, John C. ^{[17
]}

Navarro-Gonzalez, Rafael ^{[18
]}

Gellert, Ralf ^{[19
]}

Lemmon, Mark T. ^{[20
]}

机构：

[1] CALTECH, Jet Prop Lab, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA

[2] NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA

[3] Univ Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA

[4] Univ Paris Diderot, UPS,CNRS, Inst Rech Astrophys & Planetol, OMP, F-31028 Toulouse, France

[5] CALTECH, Pasadena, CA 91125 USA

[6] Univ Granada, CSIC, Inst Andaluz Ciencias Tierra, Granada, Spain

[7] Lulea Univ Technol, Div Space Technol, Kiruna, Sweden

[8] CSIC, Inst Nacl Tecn Aeroespacial, Ctr Astrobiol, Madrid, Spain

[9] Univ Maryland, Dept Astron, College Pk, MD 20742 USA

[10] Univ Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA

[11] Carnegie Inst Sci, Washington, DC 20015 USA

[12] NASA, Jacobs Technol, Johnson Space Ctr, Houston, TX 77058 USA

[13] Univ Paris Diderot, CNRS, Lab Interuniv Syst Atmospher LISA, UMR 7583, Paris, France

[14] NASA, Ames Res Ctr, Mountain View, CA 94035 USA

[15] York Univ, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada

[16] Open Univ, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, Bucks, England

[17] Univ Leicester, Space Res Ctr, Leicester LE1 7RH, Leics, England

[18] Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Ciencias Nucl, Mexico City 04510, DF, Mexico

[19] Univ Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada

[20] Texas A&M Univ, College Stn, TX 77843 USA

来源：

SCIENCE | 2015年 / 347卷 / 6220期

关键词：

MARTIAN DUST DEVILS; OXIDANT ENHANCEMENT; ATMOSPHERE; SEARCH; ORIGIN; STORMS; LIFE;

D O I：

10.1126/science.1261713

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

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.

引用

页码：415 / 417

页数：3

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