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Mars rover gives negative result on Mars methane

BY STEPHEN CLARK

SPACEFLIGHT NOW

Posted: September 22, 2013



Contrary to earlier measurements from Earth and orbiting sensors, scientists analyzing data from the Curiosity rover have concluded the Martian atmosphere contains no methane, dashing hopes the red planet may still harbor microbial life.

The rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager took dozens of exposures to be compiled into this mosaic self-portrait while Curiosity was stationed at a work site named "John Klein" earlier this year. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS



The findings, reported Thursday in the journal Science Express, are based on analyses of six samples collected by Curiosity's tunable laser spectrometer inside the nuclear-powered rover's Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM, instrument, the largest of 10 science instruments carried aboard Curiosity. The SAM payload ingested Martian air six times from October 2012 through June, passing gas through a chamber illuminated by infrared lasers to check the atmosphere's chemical make-up for methane - a molecule formed by binding one carbon atom to four hydrogen atoms. NASA says the lack of methane detected by Curiosity, coupled with the spectrometer's sensitivity, bracket the lower limit for the Martian atmosphere's methane concentration at no more than 1.3 parts per billion. Ground telescopes and Europe's Mars Express orbiter collected data indicating methane's presence in the Martian atmosphere, an indication of current microbial life or undiscovered geologic activity - the two most likely sources of methane. "It would have been exciting to find methane, but we have high confidence in our measurements, and the progress in expanding knowledge is what's really important," said the report's lead author, Chris Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We measured repeatedly from Martian spring to late summer, but with no detection of methane."

This picture shows a lab demonstration of the measurement chamber inside the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, an instrument that is part of the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation on NASA's Curiosity rover. This demonstration uses visible lasers - rather than the infrared ones on the actual spectrometer - to show how the lasers bounce between the mirrors in the measurement chamber. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech



After initial methane detections from ground-based data in 2003, follow-up observations showed the methane almost completely vanished by 2006, indicating its concentrations could change with Martian seasons. Curiosity began follow-up methane studies soon after the rover touched down inside Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012. Curiosity's tunable laser spectrometer offers 100 times better spectral resolution than any other instrument tasked with Mars methane research. "This important result will help direct our efforts to examine the possibility of life on Mars," said Michael Meyer, NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration. "It reduces the probability of current methane-producing Martian microbes, but this addresses only one type of microbial metabolism. As we know, there are many types of terrestrial microbes that don't generate methane." Earlier measurements detected localized methane abundances of up to 45 parts per billion, but NASA says Curiosity's data are inconsistent with such concentrations of methane, even if it had dispersed globally. "There's no known way for methane to disappear quickly from the atmosphere," said one of the paper's co-authors, Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. "Methane is persistent. It would last for hundreds of years in the Martian atmosphere. Without a way to take it out of the atmosphere quicker, our measurements indicate there cannot be much methane being put into the atmosphere by any mechanism, whether biology, geology, or by ultraviolet degradation of organics delivered by the fall of meteorites or interplanetary dust particles." Curiosity is not finished with work on the methane question. Scientists plan more observations to increase the fidelity of the data and seek methane concentrations well below 1 part per billion, according to NASA.

Additional coverage for subscribers:

VIDEO: THE MARS SCIENCE LAB FULL LAUNCH EXPERIENCE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ATLAS 5 ROCKET LAUNCHES MARS SCIENCE LAB PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ONBOARD CAMERA VIEW OF NOSE CONE JETTISON PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ONBOARD CAMERA VIEW OF THE STAGING EVENT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ONBOARD VIEW OF ROCKET RELEASING MSL PLAY

VIDEO: LAUNCH DECLARED A SUCCESS PLAY



VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: OUR VIEW OF LIFTOFF PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: VAB ROOF PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: PATRICK AFB PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: SOUTH OF THE PAD PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: THE BEACH TRACKER PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: SHUTTLE PAD CAMERA PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: SHUTTLE WATER TOWER PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: TRACKER WEST OF THE PAD PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: CLOSE-UP ON UMBILICALS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: COMPLEX 41 VIF PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAYS: THE PRESS SITE PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH PROJECT MANAGER PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW OF ATLAS 5 ASCENT PROFILE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ROCKET'S LAUNCH CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: MSL'S LAUNCH CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: SPACECRAFT CLEANROOM TOUR PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: ATLAS ROCKET ROLLS OUT TO LAUNCH PAD PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE VIEWS OF ROCKET ROLLOUT PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: THE PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY

VIDEO: CURIOSITY ROVER SCIENCE BRIEFING PLAY

VIDEO: LOOKING FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE PLAY

VIDEO: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE RED PLANET PLAY

VIDEO: ROBOTICS AND HUMANS TO MARS TOGETHER PLAY



VIDEO: PREVIEW OF ENTRY, DESCENT AND LANDING PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PREVIEW OF CURIOSITY ROVER EXPLORING MARS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: A FLYOVER OF THE GALE CRATER LANDING SITE PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: NUCLEAR GENERATOR HOISTED TO ROVER PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: MARS SCIENCE LAB MOUNTED ATOP ATLAS 5 PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: MOVING MSL TO ATLAS ROCKET HANGAR PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: SPACECRAFT PLACED ABOARD TRANSPORTER PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: APPLYING MISSION LOGOS ON THE FAIRING PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: MSL ENCAPSULATED IN ROCKET'S NOSE CONE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: FINAL LOOK AT SPACECRAFT BEFORE SHROUDING PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: HEAT SHIELD INSTALLED ONTO SPACECRAFT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: BEAUTY SHOTS OF SPACECRAFT PACKED UP PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ATTACHING THE RING-LIKE CRUISE STAGE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PARACHUTE-EQUIPPED BACKSHELL INSTALLED PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: SKYCRANE AND CURIOSITY MATED TOGETHER PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: TWO-HALVES OF ROCKET NOSE CONE ARRIVES PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: CENTAUR UPPER STAGE HOISTED ATOP ATLAS PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: FINAL SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER ATTACHED PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: FIRST OF FOUR SOLID BOOSTERS MOUNTED PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: FIRST STAGE ERECTED ON MOBILE LAUNCHER PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: STAGES DRIVEN FROM HARBOR TO THE ASOC PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ROCKET ARRIVES ABOARD SEA-GOING VESSEL PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: STOWING ROVER'S INSTRUMENTED ROBOT ARM PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: DEPLOYING CURIOSITY'S SIX WHEELS ON EARTH PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: MMRTG PUT BACK INTO STORAGE AT SPACEPORT PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: NUCLEAR GENERATOR FIT-CHECK ON THE ROVER PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ROVER'S NUCLEAR POWER SOURCE ARRIVES PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: SPIN-TESTING THE RING-LIKE CRUISE STAGE PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: UNCOVERING CURIOSITY ROVER IN CLEANROOM PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: UNVEILING THE ROCKET-POWERED SKYCRANE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: UNBOXING THE ROVER FROM SHIPPING CRATE PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ROVER HAULED FROM RUNWAY TO PHSF FACILITY PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: MARS ROVER ARRIVES AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER PLAY | HI-DEF



VIDEO: DESCENT WEIGHTS INSTALLED ON BACKSHELL PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: SOLAR ARRAY PANELS ATTACHED TO CRUISE RING PLAY | HI-DEF

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