Sentence examples for detection of methane from inspiring English sources

Esa's Mars Express spacecraft made a tentative detection of methane in the planet's atmosphere.

Nasa made its first definitive detection of methane on Mars in 2009.

"This is the first definitive detection of methane on Mars," Michael J. Mumma of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the leader of the research team, said at a news conference, "and the first definitive maps and identification of active regions of release".

Although the detection of methane ice on Pluto's surface in the 1970s (see below The surface and interior) gave scientists confidence that the body had an atmosphere, direct observation of it had to wait until the next decade.

Astronomers at Palomar Observatory and Johns Hopkins University found a companion to a low-mass star called Gliese 229 B. The detection of methane in its spectrum showed that it has a surface temperature less than 1,200 K. Its extremely low luminosity, coupled with the age of its stellar companion, implies that it is about 50 Jupiter masses.

The reported detection of methane is based on early observations by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer PFSS) onboard Mars Express.

Certainly, previously claimed detections of methane might have been mirages.

But not everyone is convinced the detections of methane are real.

The molecular ion of IPMP in CI mass spectrum was clearly confirmed by detection of additional methane reagent gas adducts ([M + 29]+ for [M + C2H5]+ and [M + 41]+ for [M + C3H5]+) as well as higher intensity than EI.

On September 19 , 2013 NASA scientists, from further measurements by Curiosity, reported no detection of atmospheric methane with a measured value of ppbv corresponding to an upper limit of only 1.3 ppbv (95% confidence limit) and, as a result, conclude that the probability of current methanogenic microbial activity on Mars is reduced.

Further dedicated observations are obviously needed to firm up the detection and distribution of methane on Mars.