Tag Archive for 'Atmosphere'

An artist’s illustration shows a white dwarf (right) circling a larger, Sun-like star (left) in an ultra-short orbit, forming a cataclysmic binary system. Image credit M. Weiss / Harvard & Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics.

Newly-Discovered Cataclysmic Variable Has Extremely Short Orbit

Oct 6, 2022 by News Staff

ZTF J1813+4251 is a 51-minute-orbital-period, fully eclipsing binary system consisting of a star with a temperature comparable to that of the Sun but...

An artist’s impression of an extrasolar submoon. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Nitrous Oxide Could Help Detect Extraterrestrial Life on Exo-Earths

Oct 5, 2022 by News Staff

Nitrous oxide (also known as laughing gas) — a product of microbial nitrogen metabolism — is a compelling exoplanet biosignature gas with distinctive...

This image of a sun pillar was captured by ESA-sponsored medical doctor Hannes Hagson. Image credit: ESA / IPEV / PNRA / H. Hagson.

Antarctic Researcher Spots Rare Optical Phenomenon: Sun Pillar

Sep 26, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A light pillar is an optical phenomenon where a column of light can be seen emanating from a light source. If the light comes from the Sun, the phenomenon...

A panning-view of Jupiter’s upper atmospheric temperatures, 1,000 km (621 miles) above the cloud tops; the auroral region (near the northern pole, in yellow/white) appears to have shed a massive, planetary-scale wave of heating towards the equator. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Simon / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / J. Schmidt / O’Donoghue et al., doi: 10.5194/epsc2022-373.

Huge Heat Wave Spotted in Upper Atmosphere of Jupiter

Sep 23, 2022 by News Staff

The high-temperature planetary-scale-sized structure is at least 130,000 km (80,778 miles) long, according to a new study led by JAXA scientists. A panning-view...

This image shows ‘frosted cupcake’ clouds in the atmosphere of Jupiter. The image was taken at a nominal altitude of 13,536.3 km above Jupiter’s cloud tops. image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt.

Juno Spots ‘Frosted Cupcake’ Clouds on Jupiter

Sep 22, 2022 by News Staff

Intensity data of visible light seen by a camera can be plotted as a 3D elevation landscape. The new computer animation, created by citizen scientist and...

This image of Mars, captured by Webb’s NIRCam instrument on September 5, 2022, shows 4.3-micron (F430M filter) emitted light that reveals temperature differences with latitude and time of day, as well as darkening of the Hellas Basin caused by atmospheric effects; the bright yellow area is just at the saturation limit of the detector. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Mars JWST / GTO Team.

Webb Captures Its First Images and Spectra of Mars

Sep 20, 2022 by News Staff

Using the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have...

An artist’s impression of the giant exoplanet Kepler-1704b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Three Types of Planets Orbit Red Dwarf Stars, New Study Suggests

Sep 13, 2022 by News Staff

Exoplanets smaller than Neptune are common around red dwarf (M-dwarf) stars, and many of those that transit their host stars constitute the bulk of known...

An artist’s impression of the triple brown dwarf system VHS J1256. Image credit: Sci.News.

Webb Detects Silicate Clouds on Nearby Brown Dwarf

Sep 7, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Using the spectral data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found evidence for silicate clouds as well as water, methane,...

Patchy proton aurora on Mars. Image credit: EMM / EMUS / UAE Space Agency.

MAVEN and EMM Orbiters Observe ‘Patchy’ Proton Aurora on Mars

Aug 31, 2022 by News Staff

Even though Mars does not have a global magnetic field like the Earth, it still possesses multiple kinds of aurora. One of these is proton aurora, which...

This transmission spectrum of WASP-39b was captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on July 10, 2022. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Leah Hustak, STScI / Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of Hot-Saturn WASP-39b

Aug 25, 2022 by News Staff

Carbon dioxide is a key chemical species that is found in a wide range of planetary atmospheres. This transmission spectrum of WASP-39b was captured by...

An artist’s impression of a Neptune-sized planet around an A-type star. Image credit: Steven Giacalone, University of California, Berkeley.

Neptune-Sized Exoplanet Found Orbiting A-Type Star HD 56414

Aug 12, 2022 by Natali Anderson

With an effective temperature of 8,500 K, the A-type star HD 56414 is one of the hottest stars known to host a planet smaller than Jupiter. An artist’s...

WASP-96b periodically transits WASP-96 (also known as 2MASS J00041112-4721382), a Sun-like star 980 light years away in the southern constellation Phoenix. Image credit: © Sci-News.com.

Webb Captures Most Detailed Spectrum of Exoplanet Atmosphere to Date

Jul 13, 2022 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding...

Webb’s First Full-Color Images Released

Jul 12, 2022 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope mission today released its first full-color scientific images and spectroscopic data. An artist’s impression...

2020 CD3 is estimated to be only between one and six meters across. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Huge All-Season Ozone Hole Discovered over Tropics

Jul 5, 2022 by News Staff

University of Waterloo’s Professor Qing-Bin Lu has discovered a large, all-season ozone hole in the lower stratosphere over the tropics (30 deg N –...

This impressive view of Charon was captured on July 14, 2015. Charon’s color palette is not as diverse as Pluto’s; most striking is the reddish north (top) polar region, informally named Mordor Macula. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Research Sheds Light on Origin of Charon’s Red Polar Cap

Jun 21, 2022 by News Staff

The thin methane atmosphere of Pluto’s biggest moon, Charon, undergoes ‘explosive’ pulsations owing to the Pluto-Charon’s system’s near sideways...

Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

Sulfur-Metabolizing Aerial Life Cannot Explain Composition of Venus’ Atmosphere, Scientists Say

Jun 21, 2022 by News Staff

In new research, a team of scientists at the University of Cambridge has tested the ‘life in the Venusian clouds’ hypothesis. Jordan et al. demonstrate...

An UAP from a declassified video captured by a U.S. Navy aircraft. Image credit: U.S. Navy.

NASA Creates Independent Team to Study UAPs

Jun 9, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s independent study team will examine unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) from a scientific perspective. It will focus on identifying available...

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.

Jupiter’s Atmosphere is Inhomogeneous, New Study Suggests

Jun 8, 2022 by News Staff

While the massive atmosphere of Jupiter consists mainly of hydrogen and helium, the key to understanding the gas giant’s formation and evolution lies...

This diagram shows three layers of aerosols in the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune. The height scale on the diagram represents the pressure above 10 bar. The deepest layer (Aerosol-1 layer) is thick and composed of a mixture of hydrogen sulfide ice and particles produced by the interaction of the planets’ atmospheres with sunlight. The key layer that affects the colors is the middle layer, which is a layer of haze particles (Aerosol-2 layer) that is thicker on Uranus than on Neptune. Irwin et al. suspect that, on both planets, methane ice condenses onto the particles in this layer, pulling the particles deeper into the atmosphere in a shower of methane snow. Because Neptune has a more active, turbulent atmosphere than Uranus does, the team believes Neptune’s atmosphere is more efficient at churning up methane particles into the haze layer and producing this snow. This removes more of the haze and keeps Neptune’s haze layer thinner than it is on Uranus, meaning the blue color of Neptune looks stronger. Above both of these layers is an extended layer of haze (Aerosol-3 layer) similar to the layer below it but more tenuous. On Neptune, large methane ice particles also form above this layer. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva / NASA / JPL-Caltech / B. Jónsson.

Haze Layers are Responsible for Different Blue Hues of Neptune and Uranus, Scientists Say

Jun 1, 2022 by News Staff

An international team of planetary researchers led by University of Oxford scientists has performed an analysis of visible/near-infrared observations of...

Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technology and design principle of super hygroscopic polymer films (SHPFs): (a) key steps of AWH technology; (b) geographic distribution of world average annual relative humidity; regions with less than 40% relative humidity are indicated from brown to red (warm color) regions; (c) material design of SHPFs for AWH at low relative humidity; (d) qualitative comparison of different materials in terms of core requirements for practical application of AWH. Image credit: Guo et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30505-2.

Super Hygroscopic Polymer Film Can Harvest Water from Arid Air

May 31, 2022 by News Staff

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a low-cost polymer film made of renewable biomass and hygroscopic salt that can extract...

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