Atmospheres are products of time-integrated mass exchange between the surface of a planet and its interior. On Earth and other planetary bodies, magma oceans likely marked significant atmosphere-forming events, during […]
Atmospheres, Climate, Weather
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Missions & Hardware, Press Release
Planetary Exploration Horizon 2061 Report, Chapter 4: From Planetary Exploration Goals To Technology Requirements
This chapter reviews for each province and destination of the Solar System the representative space missions that will have to be designed and implemented by 2061 to address the six […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Titan
Webb, Keck Telescopes Team Up to Track Clouds on Saturn’s Moon Titan
On the morning of Saturday, Nov. 5, an international team of planetary scientists woke up with great delight to the first Webb images of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Press Release, Venus
There Is No Phosphine On Venus According To SOFIA
Phosphine is a gas found in Earth’s atmosphere, but the announcement of phosphine discovered above Venus’s clouds made headlines in 2020.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Extinction events, Press Release
Earth Might Be Experiencing A Seventh Mass Extinction, Not The Sixth
Earth is currently in the midst of a mass extinction, losing thousands of species each year. New research suggests environmental changes caused the first such event in history, which occurred […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
An Exoplanet Atmosphere As Never Seen Before
The JWST just scored another first: a detailed molecular and chemical portrait of a distant world’s skies.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release, Proxima Centauri, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Traveling Planetary-scale Waves Cause Cloud Variability On Tidally Locked Aquaplanets
Cloud cover at the planetary limb of water-rich Earth-like planets is likely to weaken chemical signatures in transmission spectra, impeding attempts to characterize these atmospheres.
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Venus
Massive Volcanism May Have Altered Ancient Venus’ Climate
Volcanic activity lasting hundreds to thousands of centuries and erupting massive amounts of material may have helped transform Venus from a temperate and wet world to the acidic hothouse it […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors, Venus
Tricorder Tech: Venus Life Finder Habitability Mission: Motivation, Science Objectives, And Instrumentation
For over half a century, scientists have contemplated the potential existence of life within the clouds of Venus. Unknown chemistry leaves open the possibility that certain regions of the Venusian […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
Early Release Science Of The Exoplanet WASP-39b With JWST NIRSpec PRISM
Transmission spectroscopy of exoplanets has revealed signatures of water vapor, aerosols, and alkali metals in a few dozen exoplanet atmospheres.