Titan possesses a thick N2-CH4 atmosphere that makes it difficult to study its surface spectroscopically. The chemical composition of the solid surface of Titan thus remains very uncertain.
Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) in the outer Solar System are predominantly small, icy worlds long presumed to be atmosphereless except for the largest bodies.
A team of professional and amateur Japanese astronomers found evidence for a thin atmosphere around a small body in the outer Solar System. The object is so small that it […]
In the outer solar system beyond Jupiter, water ice is a dominant component of planetary bodies, and most solid objects in this region are classified as icy bodies.
Previous observations of Titan, Pluto and Solar System gas giants along with recent observations of exoplanet atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope taught us that photochemical hazes are ubiquitous […]
The first observations of Pluto by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal dramatic phenomena on its surface, like seasonal cycles of volatile ice redistribution across its surface, and material […]
![Images of the trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) Pluto [left] and Arrokoth [right], the primary flyby targets of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015 and 2019. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is capable of obtaining observations for in-depth studies of a wide range of TNOs that both complement, and go beyond what was learned by New Horizons. (Image credits: NASA/SwRI/JHU-APL)](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Webb-Reveals-The-Ancient-Surfaces.png?resize=1200%2C721&ssl=1)
Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) are icy bodies ranging in size from Pluto and Eris (dwarf planets with diameters of about 1,500 miles) down to tens of miles (Arrokoth) and even smaller. […]
Billions of years ago, in the frigid outer reaches of our solar system, two icy worlds collided. Rather than destroying each other in a cosmic catastrophe, they spun together like […]
Clouds and hazes are abundant in the thin and cold atmospheres of Triton and Pluto, where they are thought to be produced by interactions between atmospheric gases and ultraviolet photons […]
The atmospheres within our Solar System can be categorized into four distinct climate regimes: “terrestrial”, “Jovian”, “condensable”, and “exosphere”.
