Tag Archive for 'Atmosphere'

An artist’s impression of a Hycean planet. Image credit: Amanda Smith, University of Cambridge.

Astronomers Identify New Class of Exoplanets: Hycean Worlds

Aug 26, 2021 by News Staff

Hycean worlds are composed of water-rich interiors with massive oceans underlying hydrogen-rich atmospheres; with densities between those of rocky super-Earths...

This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at Mars today versus the early Martian environment. Image credit: Simon Fraser University.

Regional Dust Storms Enhance Martian Water Loss to Space: Study

Aug 17, 2021 by News Staff

Individual regional dust events can boost planetary water loss by a factor of five to ten and represent an important driver of atmospheric evolution on...

On July 14, 2021, the Subaru Telescope captured more than a dozen meteors streaming from the same direction within a 10-second window. Image credit: Subaru Telescope / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / Asahi Shimbun Company.

Subaru Telescope Captures Rare Meteor Outburst

Aug 11, 2021 by News Staff

On July 14, 2021, the Subaru-Asahi Sky Camera on the 8.2-m Subaru Telescope at the summit of Maunakea, Hawai’i, captured a rare meteor outburst associated...

This artist’s impression shows the warm terrestrial planet L 98-59b. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Five Exoplanets Orbit Nearby Red Dwarf Star

Aug 6, 2021 by Natali Anderson

The L 98-59 planetary system contains two non-transiting planets and three transiting terrestrial planets, one of which is a warm rocky world with half...

Jupiter is shown in visible light for context underneath an artistic impression of the Jovian upper atmosphere’s infrared glow. The brightness of this upper atmosphere layer corresponds to temperatures, from hot to cold, in this order: white, yellow, bright red and lastly, dark red. The aurorae are the hottest regions and the image shows how heat may be carried by winds away from the aurora and cause planet-wide heating. Image credit: J. O’Donoghue, JAXA / Hubble / NASA / ESA / A. Simon / J. Schmidt.

Jupiter’s Powerful Polar Aurorae are Responsible for Upper-Atmospheric Heating, Study Shows

Aug 5, 2021 by News Staff

The upper atmosphere of Jupiter is hotter than expected from the amount of sunlight that it receives: the average temperature should be about minus 73...

Reconstruction of the West Antarctic mid-Cretaceous temperate rainforest. The painting is based on paleofloral and environmental information inferred from palynological, geochemical, sedimentological and organic biomarker data obtained from cores at the site of PS104_20-2, Antarctica. Image credit: J. McKay / Alfred-Wegener-Institut / CC-BY 4.0.

Decline in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Caused Eocene-Oligocene Cooling, Study Says

Aug 3, 2021 by News Staff

New research shows that mean annual temperatures in southeast Australia gradually declined from 27 degrees Celsius during the Middle Eocene epoch to...

Schematics of the observations of TYC 8998-760-1b using SINFONI on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The background image is captured by the SPHERE instrument on the Very Large Telescope. The small blue box marks the field of view of SINFONI observations targeting TYC 8998-760-1b. Both the host star and TYC 8998-760-1c are outside the field of view. An example of the wavelength-collapsed image is shown in the enlarged blue box, showing negligible contribution from starlight. Image credit: ESO / Bohn et al. / Zhang et al.

Astronomers Detect Carbon-13 in Atmosphere of Young Super-Jupiter

Jul 28, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have detected the isotopically substituted carbon monoxide, 13CO, in the atmosphere of the young giant exoplanet...

Roth et al. reveal the first evidence for water vapor in the atmosphere of Ganymede, the result of the thermal escape of water vapor from the moon’s icy surface. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. daSilva.

Hubble Detects Water Vapor in Atmosphere of Ganymede

Jul 26, 2021 by News Staff

Jupiter’s icy satellite Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System. Water ice on its surface is frozen solid in frigid temperatures as low as minus...

ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter at Mars. Image credit: D. Ducros / ESA.

ESA’s ExoMars Orbiter Detects No Methane in Martian Atmosphere

Jul 22, 2021 by News Staff

The ‘methane mystery’ on Mars has been ongoing for many years, with contradictory findings from seveal missions, wuch as ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s...

The three main weather patterns on Venus. Image credit: Imamura et al. / JAXA.

Akatsuki Observes Nightside Equatorial Circulation in Atmosphere of Venus

Jul 21, 2021 by News Staff

Venus is well known for its rotating upper atmosphere, which sweeps around the planet once every 4 Earth days. This is in stark contrast to the rotation...

An artist’s impression of the potential lava world TOI-1807b. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Chris Smith, KBRwyle.

TESS Discovers Planetary Systems around Two Young Co-Moving Stars

Jul 14, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered four exoplanets orbiting TOI-2076 and TOI-1807, a pair of related...

Artist’s impression of a volcano erupting on Venus. Image credit: ESA / AOES Medialab.

Phosphine in Atmosphere of Venus Points to Explosive Volcanic Activity

Jul 13, 2021 by News Staff

In 2020, planetary scientists detected small amounts of the biosignature gas phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Curiosity Sheds New Light on Martian Methane Mystery

Jul 1, 2021 by News Staff

The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) chemistry lab onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected atmospheric methane...

This composite image, taken by JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft, shows Venus. Image credit: JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic.

Clouds of Venus Too Dry to Sustain Even Extremophile Life Forms, Study Says

Jun 29, 2021 by News Staff

The recent suggestion of phosphine gas in the atmosphere of Venus has regenerated interest in the idea of life in clouds; however, such analyses usually...

An artist’s rendering of the Neptune-like exoplanet TOI-1231b. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Neptune-Like Exoplanet Found Circling Nearby Red Dwarf

Jun 10, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered a temperate, Neptune-sized planet orbiting the M-dwarf star TOI-1231. An...

Curiosity captured these clouds just after sunset on March 19, 2021, the 3,063rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission. The image is made up of 21 individual images stitched together and color corrected so that the scene appears as it would to the human eye. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Spots Carbon Dioxide-Ice Clouds in Martian Skies

May 28, 2021 by News Staff

In March 2021, NASA’s Curiosity rover observed clouds made of carbon dioxide (CO2) ice at high altitudes in the atmosphere of Mars. Curiosity captured...

An artist’s impression of the ultra-short-period sub-Neptune exoplanet TOI-1634b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Helium Rain is Possible inside Jovian Planets, New Experiments Suggest

May 27, 2021 by News Staff

Jupiter, Saturn and numerous giant exoplanets discovered to date consist mostly of hydrogen and helium. In 1977, planetary scientists predicted the existence...

This picture of Neptune was produced from the last whole planet images taken through the green and orange filters on the narrow angle camera of NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft. The images were taken at a range of 7.1 million km (4.4 million miles) from the planet, 4 days and 20 hours before closest approach. The picture shows the Great Dark Spot and its companion bright smudge; on the west limb the fast moving bright feature called Scooter and the little dark spot are visible. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as Voyager’s cameras could resolve them. North of these, a bright cloud band similar to the south polar streak may be seen. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

ALMA Detects Hydrogen Cyanide Belt in Stratosphere of Neptune

May 21, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have produced a detailed map of intensity and abundance of gaseous hydrogen cyanide...

An artist’s impression of the early Earth. Image credit: NASA.

Earth’s Early Rise in Atmospheric Oxygen May Have Suppressed Evolution of Multicellular Organisms

May 19, 2021 by News Staff

Atmospheric oxygen is thought to have played a vital role in the evolution of complex multicellular organisms. The so-called oxygen control hypothesis...

This visible-light image of Jupiter was created from data captured on January 11, 2017 using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Near the top, a long brown feature called a ‘brown barge’ extends 72,000 km (nearly 45,000 miles) in the east-west direction. The Great Red Spot stands out prominently in the lower left, while the smaller feature nicknamed Red Spot Jr. (known to Jovian scientists as Oval BA) appears to its lower right. Image credit: NASA / ESA / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Wong et al. / de Pater et al. / M. Zamani.

Astronomers Capture Stunning New Images of Jupiter

May 12, 2021 by News Staff

Three images of Jupiter from the 8-m Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope at the Gemini Observatory and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show...

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