Saturn possesses a dynamically rich system containing numerous moons and impressive rings. Whether the rings of Saturn are much younger than the planet itself has been a long-open question; more […]
Atmospheres, Climate, Weather
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Status Report, Venus
Venus’ Atmospheric Chemistry and Cloud Characteristics Are Compatible with Venusian Life
Venus is Earth’s sister planet, with similar mass and density but an uninhabitably hot surface, an atmosphere with a water activity 50-100 times lower than anywhere on Earths’ surface, and […]
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Using A Neural Network Approach To Accelerate Disequilibrium Chemistry Calculations In Exoplanet Atmospheres
In this era of exoplanet characterisation with JWST, the need for a fast implementation of classical forward models to understand the chemical and physical processes in exoplanet atmospheres is more […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Expanding The Inventory Of Spectral Lines Used To Trace Atmospheric Escape In Exoplanets
Escaping exoplanet atmospheres have been observed as deep transit signatures in a few specific spectral lines. Detections have been made in the hydrogen Ly-α line, the metastable helium line at […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Enceladus, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Phosphorus – A Key Building Block For life – Found On Enceladus
The search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system just got more exciting. A team of scientists including Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Christopher Glein has discovered new evidence that the […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report
Day-night Transport Induced Chemistry And Clouds On WASP-39b I: Gas-phase Composition
JWST has recently detected the first robust photochemical product on an exoplanet: sulfur dioxide (SO2) on WASP-39b (Rustamkulov et al. 2023; Alderson et al. 2023; Tsai et al. 2023b).
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Trade-offs In High-contrast Integral Field Spectroscopy For Exoplanet Detection And Characterisation: Young Gas Giants In Emission
Context: Combining high-contrast imaging with medium- or high-resolution integral field spectroscopy has the potential to boost the detection rate of exoplanets, especially at small angular separations.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Astronomers Observe Giant Tails of Helium Escaping Jupiter-Like Planet
A team of astronomers has used observations from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory to discover some of the longest tails of gas […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1
Implications Of Atmospheric Non-detections For Trappist-1 Inner Planets on Atmospheric Retention Prospects For Outer Planets
JWST secondary eclipse observations of Trappist-1b seemingly disfavor atmospheres >~1 bar since heat redistribution is expected to yield dayside emission temperature below the ~500 K observed.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Neptune, Press Release
Cheops Explores Mysterious Warm Mini-Neptunes
ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops confirmed the existence of four warm exoplanets orbiting four stars in our Milky Way. These exoplanets have sizes between Earth and Neptune and orbit their stars […]