Atmospheres, Climate, Weather Archives

Simulated Ariel single-epoch spectral observations of 3 targets from our sample.

Ariel Mission, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Assessing Ariel’s Capabilities To Observe Free-floating Brown Dwarfs

by Keith CowingJune 10, 2026June 10, 2026

The primary goal of the Ariel space telescope is to conduct the biggest spectroscopic survey of transiting exoplanets to characterize their atmospheres and weather.

Opposite DSSR changes between mid-latitudes and polar regions.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Warmer World May Redraw Earth’s Sunlight Map

by Keith CowingJune 10, 2026June 10, 2026

Sunlight follows a rhythm set by Earth’s orbit and tilt: long summer days, dark winters, and a familiar seasonal cycle from low to high latitudes.

Measured effective height of Earth’s atmosphere over the SPIRou wavelength range. The surface area, S , is derived from astrometry.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Earth As A Transiting Exoplanet

by Keith CowingJune 9, 2026June 10, 2026

Context. Detecting and characterizing the atmosphere of rocky planets in the habitable zone is a key objective of exoplanet research in the era of JWST and the upcoming E-ELT. Spectroscopy […]

GREX-PLUS (Galaxy Reionization EXplorer and PLanetary Universe Spectrometer)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

GREX-PLUS Science Book v2

by Keith CowingJune 9, 2026June 9, 2026

GREX-PLUS (Galaxy Reionization EXplorer and PLanetary Universe Spectrometer) is a mission candidate for a JAXA strategic L-class mission to be launched in the 2030s. Its primary science goals are two-fold: […]

Southwest Research Institute scientists modeled the early impact history of Earth, seeking insight into potential origins of life. Based on the models, a 6-mile (10-kilometer) asteroid striking the early Earth at 9 miles per second (15 km/second) creates a crater with impact-generated permeability (left) and heat profiles (right) that could create hydrothermal conditions capable of supporting the evolution of life. -- SWRI

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Impact events, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Press Release

Impact History Of Early Earth Created Conditions Conducive To Life

by Keith CowingJune 8, 2026June 8, 2026

Southwest Research Institute scientists modeled the early impact history of Earth, seeking insight into potential origins of life. These models show that asteroid impacts on the early Earth plowed up […]

Transmission spectrum of GJ 1214b using the 5% CH4-derived haze sample atmospheric composition. The sample from K84, G18/C23 C/O = 1 sample, and H24’s sample at 300 K are overplotted for reference. We include the observations from L. Kreidberg et al. (2014); E. M. R. Kempton et al. (2023b); E. Schlawin et al. (2024) with offsets for comparisons between models. The error bars account for 1σ uncertainties in the observations. Top: Spectra from 0.5 to 8 µm, where there are large differences in the resulting transmission spectrum between the sample and previous literature optical constants. Our samples pre- and post-irradiation produce largely flat spectra. Bottom: Spectra from 2 to 3 µm. We see slight changes between our preand post-irradiation transmission spectra, where our hazes are letting gaseous CO2 found in the simulated atmosphere to be more or less visible. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ultraviolet Radiation Effects on the Optical Properties of Water-Dominated Exoplanet Hazes

by Keith CowingJune 8, 2026June 8, 2026

Temperate sub-Neptune and terrestrial exoplanets could contain large inventories of water in various phases, such as water-dominated atmospheres or even oceans. Observations have shown that many exoplanets, including water worlds, […]

Simulated emission spectra of GJ 3929 b for various surface (left) and atmospheric (right) compositions compared to the measured eclipse depths from our FN-PCA calculation,

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report

GJ 3929 b as the First Complete Rocky Worlds DDT Data Set

by Keith CowingJune 8, 2026June 26, 2026

Despite their large abundance, it is still unknown whether and under what conditions rocky planets around M dwarf stars can host atmospheres.

Locations (yellow circles) of ROIs that include paterae, potential flows, and cryovolcanic candidate regions (K. Stephan et al. 2021a) on top of the global geological map of Ganymede from G. C. Collins et al. (2013). Mercator projection. -- The Planetary Science Journal

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Ganymede, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Status Report

Potential Cryovolcanic Regions on Ganymede: A Priority Target for JUICE

by Keith CowingJune 7, 2026June 26, 2026

One of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission goals of the European Space Agency, launched in 2023 April, is the detailed characterization of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon and a […]

Comparison of input SEDs used in this study and molecular photoabsorption cross sections relevant to Archean-analog photochemistry. The horizontal bars indicate the FUV and NUV wavelength intervals used to compute the stellar FUV/NUV ratios in Figures 5 and 7. Top: Top-of-atmosphere (ToA) stellar energy fluxes at TRAPPIST-1 e from 120–350 nm for five SEDs: Peacock+2019 (P19) Median (orange) (S. Peacock et al. 2019), Mega-MUSCLES (W21) Adaptive (yellow), Mega-MUSCLES (W21) SEM (light blue) (D. J. Wilson et al. 2021), a “Revised PHOENIX” model (dark blue) constrained by the HST observations published in D. J. Wilson et al. (2021), and a scaled modern Sun (red) (G. Thuillier et al. 2004). All SEDs are scaled to TRAPPIST-1 e’s ToA irradiance. Bottom: Representative molecular cross sections for CH4 (pink), CO2 (black), H2O (green), O2 (light blue), and O3 (dark blue) are shown, highlighting the wavelength overlap between the cross sections and the stellar UV output. Where both the flux and the cross section are large, photolysis rates increase and influence production and loss pathways throughout the atmosphere. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

Ultraviolet-Driven Atmospheric Degeneracies Challenge Conventional Biosignature Frameworks for Terrestrial Planets with Ultracool M Dwarf Hosts: An Archean-Analog TRAPPIST-1 e Case Study

by Keith CowingJune 7, 2026June 7, 2026

The ultraviolet (UV) spectrum of a host star strongly shapes the atmospheric composition and potential biosignatures of its planets. This relationship may be especially important for the planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, […]

Schematic illustrating the evolutionary stages of the Eulalia asteroid family. (a) The Eulalia parent body resides near the Jupiter 3:1 mean-motion resonance (J3:1). (b) Catastrophic disruption of the parent body occurs, with approximately 50% of the fragments being directly injected into the J3:1, where they can be driven into the planet-crossing region. (c) Post-disruption dynamical evolution, during which an estimated 50% of the surviving fragments are expected to eventually migrate toward the J3:1 resonance via Yarkovsky thermal forces. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Impact events, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report

An 800-Million-Year-Old Impact Shower on the Terrestrial Planets from the Breakup of the Eulalia Parent Body

by Keith CowingJune 7, 2026June 7, 2026

Multiple studies have proposed a substantial surge in large lunar impacts approximately 800 million years ago (Ma).

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather

Assessing Ariel’s Capabilities To Observe Free-floating Brown Dwarfs

A Warmer World May Redraw Earth’s Sunlight Map

Earth As A Transiting Exoplanet

GREX-PLUS Science Book v2

Impact History Of Early Earth Created Conditions Conducive To Life

Ultraviolet Radiation Effects on the Optical Properties of Water-Dominated Exoplanet Hazes

GJ 3929 b as the First Complete Rocky Worlds DDT Data Set

Potential Cryovolcanic Regions on Ganymede: A Priority Target for JUICE

Ultraviolet-Driven Atmospheric Degeneracies Challenge Conventional Biosignature Frameworks for Terrestrial Planets with Ultracool M Dwarf Hosts: An Archean-Analog TRAPPIST-1 e Case Study

An 800-Million-Year-Old Impact Shower on the Terrestrial Planets from the Breakup of the Eulalia Parent Body

PJ Harvey Announces New Song “Voyager”

Fifty Years after Viking: The Promise of Solar System Microbiology and Microbial Ecology

Characterising Transiting Exoplanets At Long Orbital Period: Lessons Learned For PLATO From 10 Years Of Monitoring The HIP41378 System

Implications Of Self-consistent H2O Ice Optical Constants On Radiative Transfer Models Of Disks

The GAPS Programme at TNG LXXIV. A Reanalysis Of The Planetary Systems TOI-1272 And TOI-1694 With HARPS-N And Retraction Of The Planetary Interpretation Of TOI-1272 c