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Evidence for perchlorates and the origin of chlorinated hydrocarbons detected by SAM at the Rocknest aeolian deposit in Gale Crater

Daniel P. Glavin 1 Caroline Freissinet 1 Kristen E. Miller 2 Jennifer L. Eigenbrode 1 Anna E. Brunner 1, 3 Arnaud Buch 4 Brad Sutter 5 P. Douglas Archer Jr. 3 Sushil K. Atreya 6 William B. Brinckerhoff 1 Michel Cabane 7 Patrice Coll 8 Pamela G. Conrad 1 David Coscia 7 Jason P. Dworkin 1 Heather B. Franz 1, 3 John P. Grotzinger 9 Laurie A. Leshin 10 Mildred G. Martin 11, 1 Christopher Mckay 12 Douglas W. Ming 5 Rafael Navarro-González 13 Alexander Pavlov 1 Andrew Steele 14 Roger E. Summons 2 Cyril Szopa 7 Samuel Teinturier 15 Paul R. Mahaffy 1
1 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
2 EAPS - Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences [MIT, Cambridge]
3 CRESST - Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology [GSFC]
4 LGPM - Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés et Matériaux - EA 4038
5 JSC - NASA Johnson Space Center
6 AOSS - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences [Ann Arbor]
7 PLANETO - LATMOS
LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales
8 LISA (UMR_7583) - Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques
9 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology
10 RPI - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
11 Catholic University of America
12 ARC - NASA Ames Research Center
13 Laboratorio de Química de Plasmas y Estudios Planetarios [Mexico]
14 Geophysical Laboratory [Carnegie Institution]
15 LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales
Abstract : A single scoop of the Rocknest aeolian deposit was sieved (< 150 µm), and four separate sample portions, each with a mass of ~50 mg, were delivered to individual cups inside the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument by the Mars Science Laboratory rover's sample acquisition system. The samples were analyzed separately by the SAM pyrolysis evolved gas and gas chromatograph mass spectrometer analysis modes. Several chlorinated hydrocarbons including chloromethane, dichloromethane, trichloromethane, a chloromethylpropene, and chlorobenzene were identified by SAM above background levels with abundances of ~0.01 to 2.3 nmol. The evolution of the chloromethanes observed during pyrolysis is coincident with the increase in O2 released from the Rocknest sample and the decomposition of a product of N-methyl-N-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)-trifluoroacetamide (MTBSTFA), a chemical whose vapors were released from a derivatization cup inside SAM. The best candidate for the oxychlorine compounds in Rocknest is a hydrated calcium perchlorate (Ca(ClO4)2*nH2O), based on the temperature release of O2 that correlates with the release of the chlorinated hydrocarbons measured by SAM, although other chlorine-bearing phases are being considered. Laboratory analog experiments suggest that the reaction of Martian chlorine from perchlorate decomposition with terrestrial organic carbon from MTBSTFA during pyrolysis can explain the presence of three chloromethanes and a chloromethylpropene detected by SAM. Chlorobenzene may be attributed to reactions of Martian chlorine released during pyrolysis with terrestrial benzene or toluene derived from 2,6-diphenylphenylene oxide (Tenax) on the SAM hydrocarbon trap. At this time we do not have definitive evidence to support a nonterrestrial carbon source for these chlorinated hydrocarbons, nor do we exclude the possibility that future SAM analyses will reveal the presence of organic compounds native to the Martian regolith.
Keywords : MTBSTFA perchlorates chlorohydrocarbons Rocknest soil Sample Analysis at Mars Mars Science Laboratory
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LGPM | LISA | UPEC | SU-SCIENCES | USPC | SORBONNE-UNIVERSITE | UNIV-PARIS7 | UPEC-UPEM | LATMOS | CNRS | ECP-DR | UVSQ | UPMC | EC-PARIS | INSU | UNIV-PARIS | UP-SCIENCES | SU-TI

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Daniel P. Glavin, Caroline Freissinet, Kristen E. Miller, Jennifer L. Eigenbrode, Anna E. Brunner, et al.. Evidence for perchlorates and the origin of chlorinated hydrocarbons detected by SAM at the Rocknest aeolian deposit in Gale Crater. Journal of Geophysical Research. Planets, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 118 (10), pp.1955-1973. ⟨10.1002/jgre.20144⟩. ⟨hal-00868826⟩

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