The team found that most of the methane is being dissolved into the seawater and did not detect evidence of the gas breaking the surface of the ocean and getting into the atmosphere.
Backed by Benchmark Capital and Greylock Partners, Picarro has sold analyzers to climate scientists and governments in China and California, which are creating networks of the machines to detect the source of greenhouse gas emissions.
While still unable to observe the actual beginning of the universe (signs of which are reckoned to be 15 billion light-years away), the telescope will be able to detect some of the earliest objects to condense from the primordial gas.
On the plus side, the ability to directly detect light from a planet closer to the size of Earth than a Jupiter-sized gas giant is a positive step forward in our ability to learn more about planets that might be habitable.
Electric and hybrid vehicles do not rely on traditional gas or diesel-powered engines at low speeds, making them much quieter and their approach difficult to detect.