ESA | Space Science | Science & Technology | Mars Express | 2019 Apr 01
A reanalysis of data collected by ESA's Mars Express during the first 20 months of NASA's Curiosity mission found one case of correlated methane detection, the first time an in-situ measurement has been independently confirmed from orbit.
Reports of methane in the martian atmosphere have been intensely debated, with Mars Express contributing one of the first measurements from orbit in 2004, shortly after its arrival at the Red Planet. ...
While spacecraft and telescopic observations from Earth have in general reported no or very low detections of methane, or measurements right at the limit of the instruments' capabilities, a handful of spurious spikes, along with Curiosity's reported seasonal variation at its location in Gale Crater, raise the exciting question of how it is being generated and destroyed in present times.
Now, for the first time, a strong signal measured by the Curiosity rover on 15 June 2013 is backed up by an independent observation by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) onboard Mars Express the next day, as the spacecraft flew over Gale Crater. ...
Mysterious Martian Methane Bursts Confirmed
Planetary Science Institute | 2019 Apr 04
Independent Confirmation of a Methane Spike on Mars
and a Source Region East of Gale Crater ~ Marco Giuranna et al
- Nature Geoscience (online 01 Apr 2019) DOI: 10.1038/s41561-019-0331-9
Methane spikes, background seasonality and non-detections on Mars:
A geological perspective ~ Giuseppe Etiope, Dorothy Z. Oehler
- Planetary and Space Science 168:52 (Apr 2019) DOI: 10.1016/j.pss.2019.02.001
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