Atmospheres, Climate, Weather Archives

The meteorite, called Miller Range 03346 nakhlite (MIL 03346), was recovered in 2003 in the Miller Range of Antarctica. About the size of a tennis ball and weighing in at one-and-a-half pounds, MIL 03346 was one of hundreds recovered from that area. -- NASA

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mars, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release

Mars Has Been in the Deep Freeze for the Past Four Billion Years, Study Shows

by Keith CowingJuly 21, 2005April 14, 2024

The current mean temperature on the equator of Mars is a blustery 69 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Scientists have long thought that the Red Planet was once temperate enough for […]

An artist’s depiction of our world when the Earthshine measurements were taken, enhanced to show the “red edge” from vegetation. A distant astronomer on another planet would see the spectral signatures of our oxygen atmosphere, water, and chlorophyll from land plants. [enlarge] Credit: John Walker’s “Earth Viewer,” Christine Lafon, (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics).

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Astronomers Find Life On Earth

by Keith CowingOctober 30, 2002January 20, 2026

Now that the discovery of extrasolar planets, or planets around distant stars, has become relatively routine, scientists are now tackling the next step: finding life-bearing worlds. To do this, observers […]

Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Habitable Zones, Mars, Meteorites & Asteroids

Mars May Be Even Wetter Than It Was Last Week

by Keith CowingJune 27, 2000June 23, 2024

In less than a week, our collective understanding of the amount of water on Mars has been totally revamped. First there was the announcement that liquid water is apparently at […]

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about four billion years ago. The young planet Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 metres deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 kilometres. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Mars Once Had Salty Oceans – Just Like Earth

by Keith CowingJune 25, 2000April 14, 2024

On the same day that NASA was announcing the apparent presence of liquid water near the surface of Mars, another research team announced that Mars once had salty oceans like […]

Jupiter

Particles, Environments And Possible Ecologies In The Jovian Atmosphere

by Keith CowingMay 1, 1976July 3, 2026

The eddy diffusion coefficient is estimated as a function of altitude, separately for the Jovian troposphere and mesosphere. Complex organic molecules produced by the Ly alpha photolysis of methane may […]