Did you know? | Curiosity rover finds clues to changes in Mars' atmosphere

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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. The TLS shoots
laser beams into a type of measurement chamber that
can be filled with Mars air. By measuring the absorption
of light at specific wavelengths, the tool can measure
concentrations of methane, carbon dioxide and water
vapor in the Martian atmosphere and different isotopes
 of those gases. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

Did you know? | Phys.org - NASA's car-sized rover, Curiosity, has taken significant steps toward understanding how Mars may have lost much of its original atmosphere.

Learning what happened to the Martian atmosphere will help scientists assess whether the planet ever was habitable. The present atmosphere of Mars is 100 times thinner than Earth's.


A set of instruments aboard the rover has ingested and analyzed samples of the atmosphere collected near the "Rocknest" site in Gale Crater where the rover is stopped for research. Findings from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments suggest that loss of a fraction of the atmosphere, resulting from a physical process favoring retention of heavier isotopes of certain elements, has been a significant factor in the evolution of the planet. Isotopes are variants of the same element with different atomic weights.

Initial SAM results show an increase of five percent in heavier isotopes of carbon in the atmospheric carbon dioxide compared to estimates of the isotopic ratios present when Mars formed. These enriched ratios of heavier isotopes to lighter ones suggest the top of the atmosphere may have been lost to interplanetary space. Losses at the top of the atmosphere would deplete lighter isotopes. Isotopes of argon also show enrichment of the heavy isotope, matching previous estimates of atmosphere composition derived from studies of Martian meteorites on Earth. 

This graph shows the percentage abundance of five gases in the
atmosphere of Mars, as measured by the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer
 instrument of the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite
on NASA's Mars rover in October 2012. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech,
 SAM/GSFC

Scientists theorize that in Mars' distant past its environment may have been quite different, with persistent water and a thicker atmosphere. NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission will investigate possible losses from the upper atmosphere when it arrives at Mars in 2014.

With these initial sniffs of Martian atmosphere, SAM also made the most sensitive measurements ever to search for methane gas on Mars. Preliminary results reveal little to no methane. Methane is of interest as a simple precursor chemical for life. On Earth, it can be produced by either biological or non-biological processes.

Methane has been difficult to detect from Earth or the current generation of Mars orbiters because the gas exists on Mars only in traces, if at all. The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) in SAM provides the first search conducted within the Martian atmosphere for this molecule. The initial SAM measurements place an upper limit of just a few parts methane per billion parts of Martian atmosphere, by volume, with enough uncertainty that the amount could be zero.

If the atmosphere of Mars contains methane, various possibilities 

have been proposed for where the methane could come from 

and how it could disappear. Potential non-biological sources 

for methane on Mars include comets, degradation of interplanetary 

dust particles by ultraviolet light, and interaction between 

water and rock. A potential biological source would be microbes, 

if microbes have ever lived on Mars. Potential sinks for removing 

methane from the atmosphere are photochemistry in the atmosphere 

and loss of methane to the surface. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, 

SAM/GSFC

In Curiosity's first three months on Mars, SAM has analyzed atmosphere samples with two laboratory methods. One is a mass spectrometer investigating the full range of atmospheric gases. The other, TLS, has focused on carbon dioxide and methane. During its two-year prime mission, the rover also will use an instrument called a gas chromatograph that separates and identifies gases. The instrument also will analyze samples of soil and rock, as well as more atmosphere samples.

SAM is set to analyze its first solid sample in the coming weeks, beginning the search for organic compounds in the rocks and soils of Gale Crater. Analyzing water-bearing minerals and searching for and analyzing carbonates are high priorities for upcoming SAM solid sample analyses.

Researchers are using Curiosity's 10 instruments to investigate whether areas in Gale Crater ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, and built Curiosity. The SAM instrument was developed at Goddard with instrument contributions from Goddard, JPL and the University of Paris in France.

Source: Nasa
Editor: Phys.org