Tag Archive for 'Cloud'

The Radcliffe Wave next to our Sun (yellow dot), inside a cartoon model of the Milky Way. Blue dots are clusters of baby stars. The white line is a theoretical model by Konietzka et al. that explains the current shape and motion of the wave. The magenta and green lines show how the wave will move in the future. Image credit: Ralf Konietzka / Alyssa Goodman / WorldWide Telescope.

Radcliffe Wave is Oscillating, Astronomers Find

Feb 26, 2024 by News Staff

Our Sun lies within 300 parsecs (around 1,000 light-years) of the 2,700-parsec- (around 9,000-light-year-) long sinusoidal chain of dense gas clouds known...

An artist’s conception of the clouds flowing out from the center of the Milky Way, entrained in a very hot wind that has accelerated them to velocities of many hundreds of km per second. Image credit: NSF / GBO / P. Vosteen.

Astronomers Spot Hundreds of Massive Gas Clouds Escaping Milky Way’s Center

Feb 20, 2024 by News Staff

Using new 21-cm radio observations made with NSF’s Green Bank Telescope, astronomers have discovered over 250 neutral gaseous clouds being blasted out...

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

Combination of Two Minerals Can Explain Mysterious UV Absorber in Clouds of Venus

Jan 8, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The clouds of Venus are believed to be composed of sulfuric acid and minor constituents including iron-bearing compounds. Respective concentrations of...

This image of the Martian horizon was captured by the THEMIS camera on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU.

Mars Odyssey Beams Back Magnificent Images of Martian Horizon

Nov 29, 2023 by News Staff

In an operation that took mission scientists three months to plan, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter captured a series of panoramic images that showcases the...

This Webb image of Jupiter shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms. Aurorae, appearing in red in this image, extend to higher altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the planet. By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Ricardo Hueso, UPV / Imke de Pater, UC Berkeley / Thierry Fouchet, Observatory of Paris / Leigh Fletcher, University of Leicester / Michael H. Wong, UC Berkeley / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Webb Spots High-Speed Equatorial Jet in Jupiter’s Stratosphere

Oct 19, 2023 by News Staff

The newly-discovered intense (140 m/s) jet is confined to ±3° of Jupiter’s equator, is approximately 4,800 km wide, and is located in the gas giant’s...

An artist’s impression of the hot-Jupiter WASP-17b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Ralf Crawford, STScI.

Webb Detects Quartz Clouds in Atmosphere of WASP-17b

Oct 16, 2023 by News Staff

A transmission spectrum of WASP-17b — a hot-Jupiter exopanet around 1,300 light-years away — captured by the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)...

This image from the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows Neptune; a dark spot can be seen to the upper-right. Image credit: ESO / Irwin et al.

VLT Observes Large Dark Spot and Its Bright Companion in Atmosphere of Neptune

Aug 24, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have observed a large dark spot in Neptune’s...

This sequence of Hubble images chronicles the waxing and waning of the amount of cloud cover on Neptune. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Erandi Chavez, UC Berkeley / Imke de Pater, UC Berkeley.

Astronomers Discover Connection between Neptune’s Cloudy Weather and 11-Year Solar Cycle

Aug 17, 2023 by News Staff

Neptune is the most distant planet in the Solar System, an ice-giant that boasts an active and chaotic atmosphere. Using archival near-infrared observations...

This ALMA image shows the young planetary system PDS 70. The system features a star at its center, around which the planet PDS 70b (highlighted with a solid yellow circle) is orbiting. On the same orbit as PDS 70b, indicated by a solid yellow ellipse, Balsalobre-Ruza et al. detected a cloud of debris (circled by a yellow dotted line) that could be the building blocks of a new planet or the remnants of one already formed. The ring-like structure that dominates the image is a circumstellar disk of material, out of which planets are forming. There is in fact another planet in this system: PDS 70c, seen at 3 o’clock right next to the inner rim of the disk. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Balsalobre-Ruza et al.

ALMA Detects Possible Trojan Protoplanet around PDS 70

Jul 20, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

PDS 70, a young K7-type star some 370 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, is a unique target for planetary formation studies...

An artist’s impression of LTT 9779b orbiting its host star. Image credit: Ricardo Ramírez Reyes, Universidad de Chile.

Cheops Finds Metal Clouds in Atmosphere of Ultrahot Neptune

Jul 10, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Aside from the Moon, the brightest object in our night sky is planet Venus, whose thick cloud layer reflects around 75% of the Sun’s light. By comparison,...

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption captured at December 30, 2021. Image credit: Tonga Geological Services.

Giant Eruption Plume from Tonga’s Volcano Produced Most Intense Lightning Rates Ever Detected

Jun 21, 2023 by Natali Anderson

On January 15, 2022, Hunga Volcano in Tonga produced the most violent eruption in the modern satellite era, sending a water-rich plume at least 58 km (36...

This feather-shaped iridescent cloud was captured just after sunset on January 27, 2023, the 3,724th Martian day, or Sol, of Curiosity’s mission. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Rover Images Sun Rays and Feather-Shaped Clouds on Mars

Mar 6, 2023 by News Staff

‘Sun rays’ are also known as crepuscular rays, from the Latin word for twilight. It was the first time sun rays have been so clearly viewed on Mars. This...

These images of Saturn’s moon Titan were captured by Webb’s NIRCam instrument on November 4, 2022. Left: image using F212N, a 2.12-micron filter sensitive to Titan’s lower atmosphere; the bright spots are prominent clouds in the northern hemisphere. Right: color composite image using a combination of NIRCam filters; several prominent surface features are labeled: Kraken Mare is thought to be a methane sea; Belet is composed of dark-colored sand dunes; Adiri is a bright albedo feature. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / A. Pagan, STScI / Webb Titan GTO Team.

Webb Sees Clouds in Hazy Atmosphere of Titan

Dec 2, 2022 by News Staff

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the only moon in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere, and it is also the only planetary body other than Earth...

A spiral-shaped dust storm is visible in this image taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) imager on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. This image, taken on May 26, 2019, depicts the formation of a spiral shape whose main arm is approximately 2,000 km in length. A granular pattern of dust cells is visible in the storm, formed by a process called closed-cell convection. This type of convection is also responsible for some cloud patterns on Earth. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

Martian Springtime Dust Storms Churn Up Surprisingly Earth-Like Cloud Patterns: Study

Nov 16, 2022 by News Staff

Using images obtained by two orbiting spacecraft, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars Express, planetary researchers analyzed textured...

This new view of the Cone Nebula was captured with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO.

ESO Celebrates Its 60th Anniversary with Stunning View of Cone Nebula

Nov 10, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

On October 5, 1962, five countries agreed to create the European Southern Observatory (ESO) through the signature of a convention. Now, six decades later...

Contour map of the integrated atomic hydrogen emission in the vicinity of Stephan’s Quintet overlaid on the composite color image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Astronomers Spot Enormous Gas Cloud around Stephan’s Quintet

Nov 8, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) have discovered a 2-million-light-year-wide cloud of atomic hydrogen around...

This artist’s illustration indicates where the modeling of the ALMA data predicts the hot spot to be and its orbit around Sagittarius A*. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser / M. Wielgus / Event Horizon Collaboration.

ALMA Spots Bubble of Hot Gas in Orbit around Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Sep 22, 2022 by News Staff

Sagittarius A*, the 4.3-million-solar-mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, was observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter...

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...

This map shows that lightning occurs mostly over land compared to ocean; the gray rectangle indicates the region of interest from 50°W to 50°E and 20°S to 20°N. Image credit: Pan et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31714-5.

Salt in Sea Spray Aerosols Inhibits Lightning during Marine Thunderstorms: Study

Aug 4, 2022 by News Staff

In a study published this week in the journal Nature Communications, scientists tested the hypothesis that fine and coarse marine aerosols have opposite...

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