Tracing The Origin Of Methane And Water On Mars: Mapping Regions Of Active Release At Ultra-high Spatial Resolution Using Keck And VLT Under AO Control.

Details Tracing The Origin Of Methane And Water On Mars: Mapping Regions Of Active Release At Ultra-high Spatial Resolution Using Keck And VLT Under AO Control. Tracing The Origin Of Methane And Water On Mars: Mapping Regions Of Active Release At Ultra-high Spatial Resolution Using Keck And VLT Under AO Control.

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.4402m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #44.02

Physics

Optics

Scientific paper

Strong release of methane from active regions on Mars has been reported in northern summer (1) and southern spring (2). The spatial resolution of these measurements was about 500 km, sufficient to reveal discrete active regions. Regions of methane release appear mainly over ancient terrain (Noachian/Hesperian) known to have a rich hydration history, and often marked by fossae or other scarps.
However, higher resolution is needed to test whether methane release is confined to a small number of narrowly defined vents or is widely distributed over the 500 km footprint. If narrowly confined, the plume should have correspondingly higher local density, enhancing spectral searches for water, methane, their isotopologues, and other trace gases that could reveal aspects of methane generation and depth of release. Ground-based telescopes equipped with both adaptive optics (AO) and high dispersion infrared spectrometers have delivered much higher spatial resolution on planetary bodies, but until now have not been applied to Mars.
We acquired images and spectra of Mars under AO control at infrared wavelengths, using Keck-2 and ESO-VLT. In June 2009, we acquired test images with NIRC2/Keck-2 using AO in the natural guide star mode and achieved 0.12” FWHM resolution at 3.0 µm wavelength (Mars diameter was 4.7"). Diffraction-limited performance (0.06” at 3 µm) is expected during follow-up observations in September 2009. We observed Mars with UT1 under AO control (MACAO) in August and September 2009, and acquired spectra with CRIRES. We expect to achieve spatial resolution approaching 40 km in November-December 2009, representing a reduction in area by nearly a factor of 100 compared with earlier non-AO searches. Preliminary results will be presented.
This work was funded by NASA grants 08-PAST08-0034 (Planetary Astronomy) and 08-PATM080-0031 (Planetary Atmospheres).
1. Mumma, Villanueva, Novak et al., Science 323, 1041 (2009)
2. Villanueva, Mumma, Novak, (in prep) 2009.

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