Low Upper Limit to Methane Abundance on Mars

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1242902
• Publication Date: 2013-09-20T04:45:23Z
• Authors: Christopher R. We...; Paul R. Mahaffy; Sushil K. Atreya; Gregory J. Flesch; Kenneth A. Farley; ; Osku Kemppinen; Nathan Bridges; Jeffrey R. Johnson; Michelle Minitti; David Cremers; James F. Bell; Lauren Edgar; Jack Farmer; Austin Godber; Meenakshi Wadhwa; Danika Wellington; Ian McEwan; Claire Newman; Mark Richardson; Antoine Charpentier; Laurent Peret; Penelope King; Jennifer Blank; Gerald Weigle; Mariek Schmidt; Shuai Li; Ralph Milliken; Kevin Robertson; Vivian Sun; Michael Baker; Christopher Edwards; Bethany Ehlmann; Kenneth Farley; Jennifer Griffes; John Grotzinger; Hayden Miller; Megan Newcombe; Cedric Pilorget; Melissa Rice; Kirsten Siebach; Katie Stack; Edward Stolper; Claude Brunet; Victoria Hipkin; Richard Léveillé; Geneviève Marchand; Pablo Sobrón Sánchez; Laurent Favot; George Cody; Andrew Steele; Lorenzo Flückiger; David Lees; Ara Nefian; Mildred Martin; Marc Gailhanou; Frances Westall; Guy Israël; Christophe Agard; Julien Baroukh; Christophe Donny; Alain Gaboriaud; Philippe Guillemot; Vivian Lafaille; Eric Lorigny; Alexis Paillet; René Pérez; Muriel Saccoccio; Charles Yana; Carlos Armiens‐Ap...; Javier Caride Rod...; Isaías Carrasco B...; Felipe Gómez Gómez; Javier Gómez Elvira; Sebastian Hettrich; Alain Lepinette M...; Mercedes Marín Ji...; Jesús Martínez-Frías; Javier Martín Soler; F. Javier Martín-...; Antonio Molina Ju...; Luis Mora-Sotomayor; Guillermo Muñoz Caro; Sara Navarro López; Verónica Peinado-...; Jorge Pla-García; José Antonio Rodr...; Julio José Romera...; Sara Alejandra Sa...; Eduardo Sebastian...; Josefina Torres R...; Roser Urqui-O'Cal...; María-Paz Zorzano...; Steve Chipera; Jean-Luc Lacour; Patrick Mauchien; Jean-Baptiste Sirven; Heidi Manning; Alberto Fairén; Alexander Hayes; Jonathan Joseph; Steven Squyres; Robert Sullivan; Peter Thomas; Audrey Dupont; Angela Lundberg; Noureddine Melikechi; Alissa Mezzacappa; Julia DeMarines; David Grinspoon; Günther Reitz; Benito Prats; Evgeny Atlaskin; Maria Genzer; Ari-Matti Harri; Harri Haukka; Henrik Kahanpää; Janne Kauhanen; Osku Kemppinen; Mark Paton; Jouni Polkko; Walter Schmidt; Tero Siili; Cécile Fabre; James Wray; Mary Beth Wilhelm; Franck Poitrasson; Kiran Patel; Stephen Gorevan; Stephen Indyk; Gale Paulsen; Sanjeev Gupta; David Bish; Juergen Schieber; Brigitte Gondet; Yves Langevin; Claude Geffroy; David Baratoux; Gilles Berger; Alain Cros; Claude d’Uston; Olivier Forni; Olivier Gasnault; Jérémie Lasue; Qiu-Mei Lee; Sylvestre Maurice; Pierre-Yves Meslin; Etienne Pallier; Yann Parot; Patrick Pinet; Susanne Schröder; Mike Toplis; Éric Lewin; Will Brunner; Ezat Heydari; Cherie Achilles; Dorothy Oehler; Brad Sutter; Michel Cabane; David Coscia; Guy Israël; Cyril Szopa; Gilles Dromart; François Robert; Violaine Sautter; Stéphane Le Mouélic; Nicolas Mangold; Marion Nachon; Arnaud Buch; Fabien Stalport; Patrice Coll; Pascaline François; François Raulin; Samuel Teinturier; James Cameron; Sam Clegg; Agnès Cousin; Dorothea DeLapp; Robert Dingler; Ryan Steele Jackson; Stephen Johnstone; Nina Lanza; Cynthia Little; Tony Nelson; Roger C. Wiens; Richard B. Williams; Andrea Jones; Laurel Kirkland; Allan Treiman; Burt Baker; Bruce Cantor; Michael Caplinger; Scott Davis; Brian Duston; Kenneth Edgett; Donald Fay; Craig Hardgrove; David Harker; Paul Herrera; Elsa Jensen; Megan R. Kennedy; Gillian Krezoski; Daniel Krysak; Leslie Lipkaman; Michael Malin; Elaina McCartney; Sean McNair; Brian Nixon; Liliya Posiolova; Michael Ravine; Andrew Salamon; Lee Saper; Kevin Stoiber; Kimberley Supulver; Jason Van Beek; Tessa Van Beek; Robert Zimdar; Katherine Louise ...; Karl Iagnemma; Kristen Miller; Roger Summons; Fred Goesmann; Walter Goetz; Stubbe Hviid; Micah Johnson; Matthew Lefavor; Eric Lyness; Elly Breves; M. Darby Dyar; Caleb Fassett; David F. Blake; Thomas Bristow; David DesMarais; Laurence Edwards; Robert Haberle; Tori Hoehler; Jeff Hollingsworth; Melinda Kahre; Leslie Keely; Christopher McKay; Mary Beth Wilhelm; Lora Bleacher; William Brinckerhoff; David Choi; Pamela Conrad; Jason P. Dworkin; Jennifer Eigenbrode; Melissa Floyd; Caroline Freissinet; James Garvin; Daniel Glavin; Daniel Harpold; Andrea Jones; Paul Mahaffy; David K. Martin; Amy McAdam; Alexander Pavlov; Eric Raaen; Michael D. Smith; Jennifer Stern; Florence Tan; Melissa Trainer; Michael Meyer; Arik Posner; Mary Voytek; Robert C. Anderson; Andrew Aubrey; Luther W. Beegle; Alberto Behar; Diana Blaney; David Brinza; Fred Calef; Lance Christensen; Joy A. Crisp; Lauren DeFlores; Bethany Ehlmann; Jason Feldman; Sabrina Feldman; Gregory Flesch; Joel Hurowitz; Insoo Jun; Didier Keymeulen; Justin Maki; Michael Mischna; John Michael Moro...; Timothy Parker; Betina Pavri; Marcel Schoppers; Aaron Sengstacken; John J. Simmonds; Nicole Spanovich; Manuel de la Torr...; Ashwin R. Vasavada; Christopher R. We...; Albert Yen; Paul Douglas Archer; Francis Cucinotta; John H. Jones; Douglas Ming; Richard V. Morris; Paul Niles; Elizabeth Rampe; Thomas Nolan; Martin Fisk; Leon Radziemski; Bruce Barraclough; Steve Bender; Daniel Berman; Eldar Noe Dobrea; Robert Tokar; David Vaniman; Rebecca M. E. Wil...; Aileen Yingst; Kevin Lewis; Laurie Leshin; Timothy Cleghorn; Wesley Huntress; Gérard Manhès; Judy Hudgins; Timothy Olson; Noel Stewart; Philippe Sarrazin; John Grant; Edward Vicenzi; Sharon A. Wilson; Mark Bullock; Bent Ehresmann; Victoria Hamilton; Donald Hassler; Joseph Peterson; Scot Rafkin; Cary Zeitlin; Fedor Fedosov; Dmitry Golovin; Natalya Karpushkina; Alexander Kozyrev; Maxim Litvak; Alexey Malakhov; Igor Mitrofanov; Maxim Mokrousov; Sergey Nikiforov; Vasily Prokhorov; Anton Sanin; Vladislav Tretyakov; Alexey Varenikov; Andrey Vostrukhin; Ruslan Kuzmin; Benton Clark; Michael Wolff; Scott McLennan; Oliver Botta; Darrell Drake; Keri Bean; Mark Lemmon; Susanne P. Schwenzer; Ryan B. Anderson; Kenneth Herkenhoff; Ella Mae Lee; Robert Sucharski; Miguel Ángel de P...; Juan José Blanco ...; Miguel Ramos; Myung-Hee Kim; Charles Malespin; Ianik Plante; Jan-Peter Muller; Rafael Navarro-Go...; Ryan Ewing; William Boynton; Robert Downs; Mike Fitzgibbon; Karl Harshman; Shaunna Morrison; William Dietrich; Onno Kortmann; Marisa Palucis; Dawn Y. Sumner; Amy Williams; Günter Lugmair; Michael A. Wilson; David Rubin; Bruce Jakosky; Tonci Balic-Zunic; Jens Frydenvang; Jaqueline Kløvgaa...; Kjartan Kinch; Asmus Koefoed; Morten Bo Madsen; Susan Louise Svan...; Nick Boyd; John L. Campbell; Ralf Gellert; Glynis Perrett; Irina Pradler; Scott VanBommel; Samantha Jacob; Tobias Owen; Scott Rowland; Evgeny Atlaskin; Hannu Savijärvi; Eckart Boehm; Stephan Böttcher; Sönke Burmeister; Jingnan Guo; Jan Köhler; César Martín García; Reinhold Mueller-...; Robert Wimmer-Sch...; John C. Bridges; Timothy McConnochie; Mehdi Benna; Heather Franz; Hannah Bower; Anna Brunner; Hannah Blau; Thomas Boucher; Marco Carmosino; Sushil Atreya; Harvey Elliott; Douglas Halleaux; Nilton Rennó; Michael Wong; Robert Pepin; Beverley Elliott; John Spray; Lucy Thompson; Suzanne Gordon; Horton Newsom; Ann Ollila; Joshua Williams; Paulo Vasconcelos; Jennifer Bentz; Kenneth Nealson; Radu Popa; Linda C. Kah; Jeffrey Moersch; Christopher Tate; Mackenzie Day; Gary Kocurek; Bernard Hallet; Ronald Sletten; Raymond Francis; Emily McCullough; Ed Cloutis; Inge Loes ten Kate; Ruslan Kuzmin; Raymond Arvidson; Abigail Fraeman; Daniel Scholes; Susan Slavney; Thomas Stein; Jennifer Ward; Jeffrey Berger; John E. Moores
• Keywords: Multidisciplinary; 550; Bacteria; Atmosphere; Spectrum Analysis; Curiosity rover; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; Mars; methane abundance on Mars; 01 natural sciences; 13. Climate action; Exobiology; 0103 physical sciences; [SDU.STU] Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; MSL; Methane

By analogy with Earth, methane in the Martian atmosphere is a potential signature of ongoing or past biological activity. During decade, Earth-based telescopic observations reported "plumes" tens parts per billion by volume (ppbv), and those from Mars orbit showed localized patches, prompting speculation sources subsurface bacteria nonbiological sources. From situ measurements made Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) on Curiosity using distinctive spectral pattern specific to methane, we report no detection atmospheric measured value 0.18 ± 0.67 ppbv corresponding an upper limit only 1.3 (95% confidence level), which reduces probability current methanogenic microbial activity limits recent contribution extraplanetary geologic