Hot methane is found in many "cool" sub-stellar astronomical sources
including brown dwarfs and exoplanets, as well as in combustion environments on
Earth. We report on the first high-resolution laboratory absorption spectra of
hot methane at temperatures up to 1200 K. Our observations are compared to the
latest theoretical spectral predictions and recent brown dwarf spectra. The
expectation that millions of weak absorption lines combine to form a continuum,
not seen at room temperature, is confirmed. Our high-resolution transmittance
spectra account for both the emission and absorption of methane at elevated
temperatures. From these spectra, we obtain an empirical line list and
continuum that is able to account for the absorption of methane in high
temperature environments at both high and low resolution. Great advances have
recently been made in the theoretical prediction of hot methane, and our
experimental measurements highlight the progress made and the problems that
still remain.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures and 3 tables. For associated online data see
http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/813/1/1
