Tag Archive for 'Temperature'

An artist’s impression of cometary impact. Image credit: Scarlett White.

Study: Comets May Have Been Unlikely to Deliver Life’s Ingredients to Early Earth

Oct 28, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new study led by the University of Cambridge challenges the long-standing idea that comets helped kick-start life on our home planet, suggesting that...

An artist’s rendition of the TOI-561 planetary system. Image credit: Adam Makarenko / W.M. Keck Observatory.

Lava World TOI-561b May Have Reflective, Cloudy Atmosphere

Oct 27, 2026 by News Staff

TOI-561b, a rocky exoplanet so close to its parent star that its year lasts just over 10 hours, may be wrapped in a thick, reflective atmosphere, according...

A crocodylian surviving the dinosaur extinction. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Crocodile Kin Have Been Chasing Warm Climates for 250 Million Years

Oct 21, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

New research suggests that the ancestors of alligators and crocodiles stayed loyal to a warm climate through mass extinctions and hothouse worlds, a loyalty...

The cool white dwarf WD J1330+6435 has accreted sodium-rich rocky material from its planetary system into its atmosphere; the immense atmospheric density causes the sodium to absorb light over broad range of yellow, orange, and red wavelengths, giving the WD J1330+6435 a ghostly green appearance. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / University of Warwick.

White Dwarfs Really are White, But Few are Green, Pink or Vivid Blue

Oct 15, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of astronomers led by University of Warwick’s Dr. Mark Hollands has converted white dwarf spectra into the colors a human eye would perceive. The...

Incendiamoeba cascadensis undergoes cellular replication up to 63 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Rappaport et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.08.043.

Geothermal Amoeba Found Thriving at 63 Degrees Celsius Shatters Limits of Eukaryotic Life

Sep 23, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Microbiologists have discovered a new species of heat-loving amoeba that divides at 63 degrees Celsius (145 degrees Fahrenheit) and remains motile up to...

Tyrannosaurus rex holotype specimen at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, the United States. Image credit: Scott Robert Anselmo / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Tyrannosaurus rex Had Mammal-Like Body Temperature, Study Finds

Sep 18, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new analysis of Tyrannosaurus rex teeth indicates the ancient predator maintained a body temperature of about 36.3 degrees Celsius (97.3 degrees Fahrenheit),...

The distribution of dust (blue), gas (green) and ions (red) in the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: Lea Ferellec.

Study: Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Formed in Cold, Nitrogen-Rich Environment

Sep 14, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have found new evidence that 3I/ATLAS, only the third confirmed interstellar object ever detected entering the Solar System from beyond, formed...

This artist’s concept depicts a trans-Neptunian object. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Leah Hustak, STScI.

Hubble and Webb Team Up to Spy Tiny Frozen Worlds beyond Neptune

Sep 9, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

For the first time, astronomers combined Hubble and Webb space telescopes to hunt down some of the smallest, faintest objects ever spotted in the outer...

The north polar region of Io was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on December 30, 2023. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt.

Juno’s Microwave Vision Peers beneath Surface of Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io

Jul 23, 2026 by Natali Anderson

New data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft show temperatures spike more than 20 degrees Celsius just a few meters under Io’s surface, providing the first...

These images from Mars Color Imager (MARCI) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show Mars before (left) and during (right) the June 2018 dust storm. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Space Weather May Warp Martian Weather during Dust Storms, Planetary Scientists Suggest

Jul 22, 2026 by News Staff

Planetary researchers have found the first evidence that bursts of energetic particles from the Sun could warm the lower atmosphere of Mars during massive...

WD 1856b is a gas giant that orbits its star at a distance 50 times closer than Earth orbits the Sun. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Ralf Crawford, STScI.

Giant Exoplanet around White Dwarf May Reveal Jupiter’s Fate Billions of Years from Now

Jul 6, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have analyzed the atmosphere of a massive exoplanet orbiting the white dwarf WD 1856+534....

An artist’s impression of the hot-Jupiter exoplanet HD 80606b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

Webb Sees Jupiter-Size Exoplanet Being Roasted by Its Star

Jun 22, 2026 by News Staff

HD 80606b has one of the most extreme orbits of any known exoplanet and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope just caught it getting flash-fried...

XRF map of 7.53 g slice of NWA 12593: calcium (Ca) and iron (Fe) illustrate the location and diversity of clasts; sulfur (S) highlights the location of cracks and terrestrial weathering. Image credit: Crow et al., doi: 10.1130/G54386.1.

Lunar Meteorite Preserves Evidence of Colossal Asteroid Strike

Jun 10, 2026 by News Staff

Planetary scientists analyzing a lunar meteorite known as Northwest Africa (NWA) 12593 have uncovered evidence of an asteroid impact that occurred 3.5...

An artist’s impression of the ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: Oleg Kuznetsov, http://3depix.com / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ancient Earth Repeatedly Thawed during Catastrophic Ice Ages, New Research Suggests

May 13, 2026 by News Staff

Earth experienced extreme climate swings during the Neoproterozoic epoch (one billion to 538.8 million years ago), including the Sturtian glaciation, when...

This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER’s primary mission. These colors are not what Mercury would look like to the human eye, but rather the colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up the planet’s surface. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Mercury’s Sulfur-Rich Magma May Rewrite How Solar System’s Innermost Planet Formed

Apr 15, 2026 by News Staff

New research from Rice University suggests sulfur keeps Mercury’s interior molten at lower temperatures, offering new clues to how the planet’s strange...

This artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three exoplanets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 38.8 light-years from Earth. These alien worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth. In this view one of the inner planets is seen in transit across the disc of TRAPPIST-1. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Two Earth-Size Worlds in TRAPPIST-1 System Reveal Stark Divide Between Day and Night

Apr 13, 2026 by News Staff

New Webb observations of two exoplanets TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c show blistering days and frozen nights, offering the first detailed climate maps of...

Illustration of the predicted hexagonal carbon hydride compound under Neptune-like interior conditions. In this structure, carbon forms the outer spiral chains (yellow) and hydrogen forms the inner spiral chains (blue), consistent with the quasi-one-dimensional superionic behavior identified in first-principles simulations. Image credit: Cong Liu.

New Form of Matter May Lurk Deep Inside Uranus and Neptune

Apr 6, 2026 by News Staff

New computational simulations suggest ice-giant planets like Uranus and Neptune harbor a quasi-one-dimensional superionic state of carbon hydride that...

You et al. studied supercooled water at timescales before ice formation by heating high- and low-density amorphous ices using infrared ultrafast laser pulses, followed by X-ray scattering; they observed a rapid increase in the heat capacity indicating a critical divergence at 210 K coincident with enhanced density fluctuations. Image credit: POSTECH University.

Physicists Find First Experimental Evidence of Elusive Critical Point in Supercooled Water

Mar 30, 2026 by News Staff

By probing supercooled water with ultrafast lasers before it crystallizes, physicists at Stockholm University observed telltale signs of a long-theorized...

Tiranti et al. mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’ upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / STScI / P. Tiranti / H. Melin / M. Zamani, ESA & Webb.

Webb Reveals Hidden Layers of Uranus’ Upper Atmosphere

Feb 21, 2026 by News Staff

For the first time, astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’ ionosphere, uncovering unexpected temperature peaks, weakened ion densities,...

Triceratops’ nasal cavity. Image credit: K. Sakane.

Triceratops’ Oversized Nasal Cavities Played Roles Far Beyond Smell, Paleontologists Find

Feb 17, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

For decades, depictions of Triceratops and its kin have been driven by bone alone. Now, paleontologists in Japan have mapped the soft-tissue anatomy of...

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