Published October 1, 1976
| public
Journal Article
Isotopic Composition of the Martian Atmosphere
Chicago
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Abstract
Results from the neutral mass spectrometer carried on the aeroshell of Viking 1 show evidence for NO in the upper atmosphere of Mars and indicate that the isotopic composition of carbon and oxygen is similar to that of Earth. Mars is enriched in ^(15)N relative to Earth by about 75 percent, a consequence of escape that implies an initial abundance of nitrogen equivalent to a partial pressure of at least 2 millibars. The initial abundance of oxygen present either as CO_2 or H_2O must be equivalent to an exchangeable atmospheric pressure of at least 2 bars in order to inhibit escape-related enrichment of ^(18)O.
Additional Information
© 1976 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 2 September 1976. Work at the University of Minnesota and at Harvard University was supported by NASA under contracts NAS-1-9697 and NAS-1-10492, respectively. A.O.N. is indebted to Ward Johnson for help in making computations.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 47371
- DOI
- 10.1126/science.194.4260.68
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140721-141309854
- NASA
- NAS-1-9697
- NASA
- NAS-1-10492
- Created
-
2014-07-21Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)