Tag Archive for 'Nitrogen'

Voyager 2 image of Triton showing the south polar region with dark streaks produced by geysers visible on the icy surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

Astronomers Find Exotic Ices on Neptune’s Moon Triton

May 24, 2019 by News Staff

In the lab, scientists have pinpointed a specific wavelength of infrared light absorbed when molecules of carbon monoxide and nitrogen join together and...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Pluto’s Atmosphere Predicted to Collapse by 2030

Apr 25, 2019 by News Staff

The tenuous nitrogen atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto is predicted to ultimately collapse and freeze over. This high-resolution image of Pluto was...

This Hubble image shows a globular cluster called NGC 2419. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Larsen et al.

Hubble Observes ‘Intergalactic Wanderer’

Feb 25, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed the massive, luminous globular cluster NGC 2419, also known as the ‘Intergalactic...

Greenwood et al discovered that water was present on Earth at an early stage in its evolution and survived the giant impact, which formed the Moon. This is an artist’s depiction of a catastrophic collision between two celestial bodies; such an impact between the proto-Earth and Theia likely formed the Moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Earth’s Essential Elements for Life Probably Came from Another Planet

Jan 24, 2019 by News Staff

Planetary researchers believe that our Moon was created more than 4.4 billion years ago in a catastrophic collision between proto-Earth and a hypothetical...

An artist’s concept of a dust storm on Titan. Image credit: NASA / ESA / IPGP / Labex UnivEarthS / University Paris Diderot.

‘Cooking’ of Ancient Organics Created Titan’s Mysterious Atmosphere

Jan 24, 2019 by News Staff

New research tackles one of the greatest mysteries about Saturn’s moon Titan: the origin of its present-day nitrogen atmosphere. Published in the Astrophysical...

Turnbull et al synthesized a single crystal of ι–N2 in a diamond anvil cell from ε–N2 at 65 GPa and 477 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Turnbull et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07074-4.

Physicists Solve Structure of Unusually Complex Form of Nitrogen

Nov 13, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of experimental physicists has for the first time determined the structure of ι-N2, a crystallized version of nitrogen. Turnbull...

Comet C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS). Image credit: Damian Peach, www.damianpeach.com / Jose J. Chambo, www.cometografia.es.

Astronomers Spot Rare Blue Comet: C/2016 R2

Oct 16, 2018 by Sergio Prostak

C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS), a visitor from the Solar System’s distant Oort Cloud, sports a very complex tail dominated by blue light and is unusually rich...

Carbon Dioxide ‘Leak’ in Southern Ocean May Have Warmed Earth for 11,000 Years

Aug 1, 2018 by News Staff

The Earth’s oceans lock away atmospheric carbon dioxide, but a ‘leak’ in the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, brings the greenhouse gas...

Nitrogen is most-commonly bonded with itself in diatomic N2 molecules; a new study confirms that it becomes a metallic fluid when subjected to the extreme pressure and temperature conditions found deep inside the Earth and other planets. Image credit: Alexander Goncharov.

Extreme Pressures and Temperatures Turn Nitrogen Metallic

Jul 10, 2018 by News Staff

New research indicates that nitrogen, one of the most-common elements in the Universe and the dominant gas in the atmosphere of Earth, becomes a metallic...

Is Pluto ‘an Agglomeration of a Billion Comets’?

May 28, 2018 by News Staff

Planetary researchers working with data from NASA’s New Horizons and ESA’s Rosetta missions have developed a new theory for the formation of the dwarf...

This artist’s impression shows a massive, comet-like object falling towards a white dwarf. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levy, STScI.

Hubble Finds Extrasolar Kuiper Belt Object Ripped Apart by White Dwarf

Feb 9, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have found the first evidence of the remains of a Kuiper Belt object analog scattered around a white dwarf star. The research was published...

The six most common elements of life on Earth (including more than 97% of the mass of a human body) are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus. The colors in the spectra show dips, the size of which reveal the amount of these elements in the atmosphere of a star. The human body on the left uses the same color coding to evoke the important role these elements play in different parts of our bodies, from oxygen in our lungs to phosphorous in our bones (although in reality all elements are found all across the body). In the background is an artist’s impression of the Galaxy, with cyan dots to show the APOGEE measurements of the oxygen abundance in different stars; brighter dots indicate higher oxygen abundance. Image credit: Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital Inc / SDSS.

Astronomers Map ‘Elements of Life’ in Milky Way Galaxy

Jan 14, 2017 by News Staff

At the 229th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Jan. 5, 2017, astronomers from the SDSS/APOGEE (Sloan Digital Sky Survey/Apache Point Observatory...

This mosaic provides the best view ever obtained of the dwarf planet Pluto. The lower right edge of the planet in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Pluto’s Atmospheric Nitrogen Likely Has Internal Origin, Scientists Say

Aug 12, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers at Southwest Research Institute are studying the data collected by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft to discover what is pumping up the nitrogen...

Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 km) from the dwarf planet’s surface. This is the last and most detailed image sent to Earth before the spacecraft’s closest approach to Pluto on July 14. The color image has been combined with lower-resolution color information from the Ralph instrument that was acquired earlier on July 13. This view is dominated by the large, bright feature informally named the ‘heart,’ which measures around 1,000 miles (1,600 km) across. The heart’s diameter is about the same distance as from Denver to Chicago, in America’s heartland. The heart borders darker equatorial terrains, and the mottled terrain to its east (right) are complex. However, even at this resolution, much of the heart’s interior appears remarkably featureless-possibly a sign of ongoing geologic processes. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons Uncovers Hidden Secrets of Pluto’s Atmosphere

Jul 20, 2015 by News Staff

The Alice instrument – a lightweight (4.4 kg), low-power (4.4 Watt) imaging spectrograph aboard NASA’s New Horizons – has observed Pluto’s...

Rosetta NavCam image taken on 14 March 2015 at 85.7 km from the center of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; it has been cleaned to remove the more obvious bad pixels and cosmic ray artefacts, and intensities have been scaled. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Rosetta Detects Molecular Nitrogen at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Mar 23, 2015 by News Staff

The Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has made the first measurement of molecular...

Early Earth. Image credit: Christine Daniloff.

Life May Have Flourished on Earth as Early as 3.2 Billion Years Ago

Feb 17, 2015 by News Staff

The ability to use atmospheric nitrogen to support more widespread life was thought to have appeared 2 billion years ago. Now, a study led by Dr Eva Stüeken...

This image is a composite of several images taken during two separate Titan flybys in 2006. The large circular feature near the center of Titan's disk may be the remnant of a very old impact basin. The mountain ranges to the southeast of the circular feature, and the long dark, linear feature to the northwest of the old impact scar may have resulted from tectonic activity on Titan caused by the energy released when the impact occurred. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Nitrogen in Atmosphere of Titan Might Pre-Date Saturn, Study Says

Jun 24, 2014 by News Staff

A new study provides strong evidence that the nitrogen in the atmosphere of Titan – the largest of the Saturn’s known 62 moons – originated...

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