An important evolutionary pathway for planetary atmospheres is escape to space, which has been studied on Earth and Mars for several decades and more recently in exoplanets.
Mars provides a critical analog to once habitable exoplanets that have since lost their surface liquid water.
Editor’s note: One way to search for habitable – and possibly inhabited – worlds in our solar system and in other star systems is to examine planetary atmospheres for chemical […]
The atmospheres of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes can be strongly modified by chemical exchange with their molten interiors during long-lived magma ocean phases. Interpreting atmospheric observations requires fast models that self-consistently […]
Despite the low solar irradiation it receives, Neptune shows a very active atmosphere with some of the most intense dynamics observed in Solar System atmospheres. Characterizing the atmospheric temperature profiles […]
Brown dwarfs are compact objects that do not reach temperatures high enough to produce sustained hydrogen fusion. Consequently, they cool over time, gradually evolving through later spectral types.
Editor’s note: for more than half a century we have been learning how to use the viewpoint from space to study our home world. The instruments we have developed often […]
Many icy bodies in the Solar System are hypothesized to harbor subsurface liquid-water oceans, with Jupiter’s moon Europa among the most promising for astrobiology research. NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will […]
We report the first detection of stratospheric propadiene (CH2CCH2) and propene (C3H6) at Jupiter’s mid-to-high northern latitudes using IRTF-TEXES measurements recorded on March 5-6, 2025.
A major goal of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) is to precisely characterize exoplanets and their atmospheres.
