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Cited by 118Planetary Science and ExplorationAstro and Planetary ScienceAtmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics

Low Upper Limit to Methane Abundance on Mars

Webster, Christopher R., Mahaffy, Paul R., Atreya, Sushil K., Flesch, Gregory J., Farley, Kenneth A., MSL Science Team, Kemppinen, Osku, Bridges, Nathan +446 more·2013·Science
DOI 10.1126/science.1242902
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Abstract

No Methane to Be Found: On Earth, atmospheric methane is mostly produced biologically. Atmospheric methane has also been detected on Mars, but these reports have been controversial. Based on data from the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite on the Curiosity rover, which arrived at the surface of Mars in August 2012, Webster et al. (p. 355 , published online 19 September) report no methane, with an upper limit of only 1.3 parts per billion by volume, about 6 times lower than previous measurements.

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  • The MSL SAM instrument has been unable to detect atmospheric methane to an upper limit of only 1.3 ppbv.

    “the MSL SAM instrument has been unable to detect atmospheric methane to an upper limit of only 1.3 ppbv (Webster et al., 2013).”

    From The Astrobiology Primer v2.0 (2016) · cites this paper as Webster et al., 2013

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Webster, C. R., Mahaffy, P. R., Atreya, S. K., Flesch, G. J., Farley, K. A., MSL Science Team, Kemppinen, O., Bridges, N., Johnson, J. R., Minitti, M., Cremers, D., Bell, J. F., 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., Ehlmann, B., 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., Israël, G., Agard, C., Baroukh, J., Donny, C., Gaboriaud, A., Guillemot, P., Lafaille, V., Lorigny, E., Paillet, A., Pérez, R., Saccoccio, M., Yana, C., Armiens‐Aparicio, C., 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., Manfredi, J. A. R., Romeral-Planelló, J. J., Fuentes, S. A. S., 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., Atlaskin, E., 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., Wilhelm, M. B., 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., Jones, A., 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., Dyar, M. D., 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., Juarez, M. D. L. T., 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., Kuzmin, R., 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., Hernández, M. Á. D. P., Ávalos, J. J. B., 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., Stipp, S. L. S., 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.
Affiliations
  • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
  • Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
  • California Institute of Technology (US)
  • Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
  • GeoRessources (FR)
  • Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
  • University of Michigan (US)
ORCID
Venue
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Published
2013-10-18
Volume
342
Issue
6156
Pages
355-357
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
DOI
10.1126/science.1242902
OpenAlex
W2145786510
Cited by
118
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 3
FWCI
9.90
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion)
  • elib (German Aerospace Center) (submittedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Smithsonian Digital Repository (Smithsonian Institution) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Planetary Science and Exploration
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
Keywords
methane, Mars atmosphere, Curiosity rover, biosignatures, subsurface microbial life, methane plumes
MeSH terms
Atmosphere, Bacteria, Methane, Spectrum Analysis, Mars, Exobiology

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