Title: | No detection of methane on Mars from early ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter observations |
Authors: | Korablev, Oleg Avandaele, Ann Carine Montmessin, Franck Fedorova, Anna A. Trokhimovskiy, Alexander Forget, François Lefèvre, Franck Daerden, Frank Thomas, Ian R. Trompet, Loïc Erwin, Justin T. Kasaba, Yasumasa Kass, David Khatuntsev, Igor Kleinböhl, Armin Kokonkov, Nikita Krasnopolsky, Vladimir Kuzmin, Ruslan Lacombe, Gaétan LANCIANO, ORIETTA Lellouch, Emmanuel Oliva, Fabrizio Lewis, Stephen Luginin, Mikhail Liuzzi, Giuliano López-Puertas, Manuel López-Valverde, Miguel Määttänen, Anni Mahieux, Arnaud Marcq, Emmanuel Martin-Torres, Javier Maslov, Igor Patsaev, Dmitry Medvedev, Alexander Millour, Ehouarn Moshkin, Boris Mumma, Michael J. Nakagawa, Hiromu Novak, Robert E. Piccialli, Arianna Quantin-Nataf, Cathy Renotte, Etienne Ritter, Birgit Rodin, Alexander Schmidt, Frédéric Schneider, Nick Shematovich, Valery Aoki, Shohei Smith, Michael D. Teanby, Nicholas A. Thiemann, Ed Thomas, Nicolas Vander Auwera, Jean Vazquez, Luis Villanueva, Geronimo Vincendon, Matthieu Whiteway, James Wilquet, Valérie Robert, Séverine Wolff, Michael J. WOLKENBERG, PAULINA MARIA Yelle, Roger Young, Roland Zasova, Ludmila Zorzano, Maria Paz Neary, Lori Viscardy, Sébastien Grigoriev, Alexey V. Ignatiev, Nikolay I. Shakun, Alexey Patrakeev, Andrey Belyaev, Denis A. Bertaux, Jean-Loup Olsen, Kevin S. Baggio, Lucio Alday, Juan Ivanov, Yuriy S. Ristic, Bojan Mason, Jon Willame, Yannick Depiesse, Cédric Hetey, Laszlo Berkenbosch, Sophie Clairquin, Roland Queirolo, Claudio Beeckman, Bram Neefs, Eddy Patel, Manish R. BELLUCCI, Giancarlo López-Moreno, Jose-Juan Wilson, Colin F. Etiope, Giuseppe Zelenyi, Lev Svedhem, Håkan Vago, Jorge L. ACS Science Team NOMAD Science Team Alonso-Rodrigo, Gustavo ALTIERI, FRANCESCA Anufreychik, Konstantin Arnold, Gabriele Bauduin, Sophie Bolsée, David CARROZZO, FILIPPO GIACOMO Clancy, R. Todd CLOUTIS, EDWARD Crismani, Matteo da Pieve, Fabiana D'AVERSA, EMILIANO Duxbury, Natalia Encrenaz, Therese Fouchet, Thierry Funke, Bernd Fussen, Didier Garcia-Comas, Maia Gérard, Jean-Claude GIURANNA, MARCO Gkouvelis, Leo Gonzalez-Galindo, Francisco GRASSI, Davide Guerlet, Sandrine Hartogh, Paul Holmes, James Hubert, Benoît Kaminski, Jacek Karatekin, Ozgur |
Issue Date: | 2019 |
Journal: | NATURE |
Number: | 568 |
Issue: | 7753 |
First Page: | 517 |
Abstract: | The detection of methane on Mars has been interpreted as indicating that geochemical or biotic activities could persist on Mars today<SUP>1</SUP>. A number of different measurements of methane show evidence of transient, locally elevated methane concentrations and seasonal variations in background methane concentrations<SUP>2-5</SUP>. These measurements, however, are difficult to reconcile with our current understanding of the chemistry and physics of the Martian atmosphere<SUP>6,7</SUP>, which—given methane's lifetime of several centuries—predicts an even, well mixed distribution of methane<SUP>1,6,8</SUP>. Here we report highly sensitive measurements of the atmosphere of Mars in an attempt to detect methane, using the ACS and NOMAD instruments onboard the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter from April to August 2018. We did not detect any methane over a range of latitudes in both hemispheres, obtaining an upper limit for methane of about 0.05 parts per billion by volume, which is 10 to 100 times lower than previously reported positive detections<SUP>2,4</SUP>. We suggest that reconciliation between the present findings and the background methane concentrations found in the Gale crater<SUP>4</SUP> would require an unknown process that can rapidly remove or sequester methane from the lower atmosphere before it spreads globally. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/28635 |
URL: | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1096-4 |
ISSN: | 0028-0836 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41586-019-1096-4 |
Bibcode ADS: | 2019Natur.568..517K |
Fulltext: | open |
Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista
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