atmosphere Archives

Windracers ULTRA UAV in front of ice cliffs at Rothera Research Station -- Windracers & British Antarctic Survey

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving

Ice World Exploration: Pilotless Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle Arrives In Antarctica

by Keith CowingFebruary 6, 2024February 6, 2024

A team have arrived at Rothera Research Station, ready to start testing the new Windracers ULTRA autonomous drone in Antarctica. If successful, the new drone platform could represent a major […]

Weighting function distribution for nadir and limb viewing geometries for the 2017 observation. Beam locations were placed such that the top-of-atmosphere latitudes matched for both locations for each observation, taking into account Titan’s tilt. Weighting distributions are not coadded, as plotted, but calculated individually for each extraction region. Titan’s solid body radius (2575 km; dashed circle), top of atmosphere (1200 km above the surface; solid circle), and top-of-atmosphere latitudes are shown. The FWHM of the ALMA beam is denoted by the dashed ellipses. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report, Titan

Variability in Titan’s Mesospheric HCN and Temperature Structure as Observed by ALMA

by Keith CowingFebruary 6, 2024February 6, 2024

The temperature structure of Titan’s upper atmosphere exhibits large variability resulting from numerous spatially and temporally irregular external energy sources, seasonal changes, and the influence of molecular species produced via […]

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Neptune, Status Report, Triton

Constraints On Triton’s Atmospheric Evolution From Occultations: 1989-2022

by Keith CowingFebruary 6, 2024February 6, 2024

Context – Around the year 2000, Triton’s south pole experienced an extreme summer solstice that occurs every about 650 years, when the subsolar latitude reached about 50°. Bracketing this epoch, […]

An artist's concept of the exoplanet GJ 9827d, the smallest exoplanet where water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere. CREDIT NASA/ESA/Leah Hustak, Ralf Crawford, Space Telescope Science Institute

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Neptune, Press Release, Uranus

Neptune-like Exoplanets Can Be Cloudy Or Clear — New Findings Suggest The Reason Why

by Keith CowingFebruary 2, 2024

The study of “exoplanets,” the sci-fi-sounding name for all planets in the cosmos beyond our own solar system, is a pretty new field. Mainly, exoplanet researchers like those in the […]

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope -- NASA

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Roman Space Telescope Next-Gen Exoplanet-Imaging Technology Tested

by Keith CowingFebruary 1, 2024February 1, 2024

A cutting-edge tool to view planets outside our solar system has passed two key tests ahead of its launch as part of the agency’s Roman Space Telescope by 2027.

We select 10 and 5 candidate planets around nearby stars for ELT/HARMONI and ELT/METIS, respectively. As the spatial resolution of ELT/HARMONI is smaller than the plotting range, we only show the spatial resolution for ELT/METIS as the vertical dotted blue line. Planets located to the right of the dotted line are suitable planets for ELT/METIS. All colored points are suitable planets for ELT/HARMONI. The size of the colored point is proportional to the planet radius. The color of the point is based on the equilibrium temperature. All colored data points are the candidate planets listed in Table 1. Selection criteria can be found in Section 2.1. The gray points are other exoplanets from NEA that are less suitable for direct imaging with ELT. -- Ohio State University

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Proxima Centauri

Biosignatures: Looking For Signs Of Life Among Exoplanet Atmospheres

by Keith CowingFebruary 1, 2024February 1, 2024

The next generation of advanced telescopes could sharpen the hunt for potential extraterrestrial life by closely scrutinizing the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets, new research suggests.

TRAPPIST-1 planets and the inner planets f our solar system. -- NASA

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Airy Worlds Or Barren Rocks? On The Survivability Of Secondary Atmospheres Around The TRAPPIST-1 Planets

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2024January 31, 2024

In this work we aim to determine the atmospheric survivability of the TRAPPIST-1 planets by modelling the response of the upper atmosphere to incoming stellar high-energy radiation.

JWST/NIRSpec integrated spectra and 1σ uncertainties (gray error bars) of Callisto’s leading (purple) and trailing (red) hemisphere, normalized to 1 at 3.82 μm and offset vertically for clarity. The G395H grating has a ~0.1 μm wide wavelength gap, shifting between ~4 and 4.2 μm across NIRSpec IFU’s 29 image slices. Some of the image slices that span Callisto’s disk include wavelength coverage between ~4 and 4.2 μm, which are shown here for Callisto’s leading (bright blue) and trailing (bright orange) hemispheres. All spectral features identified in this study are labeled, with dotted lines indicating their central wavelengths. Features with confirmed compositions have bolded labels, whereas weak features, or those with multiple compositional interpretations, are italicized and followed by question marks. Possible bands and spectral structure at wavelength >4.98 μm may result from data calibration artifacts and are not analyzed in this study. The inset box shows a close-up of the 4.19 to 4.42 μm wavelength range, highlighting the CO2 features we have identified and the different band centers for 12CO2 on Callisto’s leading (4.254 μm) and trailing (4.250 μm) hemisphere, as well as a feature near 4.3 μm that may result from an isotope of CO2 or could be a residual solar line (Appendix A.3). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Callisto, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Status Report

Revealing Callisto’s Carbon-rich Surface And CO2 Atmosphere With JWST

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2024January 31, 2024

We analyzed spectral cubes of Callisto’s leading and trailing hemispheres, collected with the NIRSpec Integrated Field Unit (G395H) on the James Webb Space Telescope.

Intensity of key gas isotopologues, which could potentially be metabolically fractionated. The intensity is shown along the y-axis and the wavelength in microns along the x-axis. The wavelength range shown includes the strongest features of each isotopologues relevant for JWST. The 13CO2 and 12CO2 isotopologues (in green) are both the strongest absorbers and the most well spectrally separated, making them the best isotopologue pair for spectroscopic detection with JWST. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Can Isotopologues Be Used as Biosignature Gases in Exoplanet Atmospheres?

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2024January 30, 2024

Isotopologue ratios are anticipated to be one of the most promising signs of life that can be observed remotely. On Earth, carbon isotopes have been used for decades as evidence […]

Logarithmic scale contour plots of the escaping O+ ion density (units of cm−3 ) in the meridional plane for cases with different planetary radii subjected to the same ancient solar conditions. The second plot from the left in the top row (R = 0.75 RV ) has the highest atmospheric ion escape rate. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Role Of Planetary Radius on Atmospheric Escape of Rocky Exoplanets

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2024January 30, 2024

Large-scale characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres is on the horizon, thereby making it possible in the future to extract their statistical properties.

atmosphere

Ice World Exploration: Pilotless Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle Arrives In Antarctica

Variability in Titan’s Mesospheric HCN and Temperature Structure as Observed by ALMA

Constraints On Triton’s Atmospheric Evolution From Occultations: 1989-2022

Neptune-like Exoplanets Can Be Cloudy Or Clear — New Findings Suggest The Reason Why

Roman Space Telescope Next-Gen Exoplanet-Imaging Technology Tested

Biosignatures: Looking For Signs Of Life Among Exoplanet Atmospheres

Airy Worlds Or Barren Rocks? On The Survivability Of Secondary Atmospheres Around The TRAPPIST-1 Planets

Revealing Callisto’s Carbon-rich Surface And CO2 Atmosphere With JWST

Can Isotopologues Be Used as Biosignature Gases in Exoplanet Atmospheres?

Role Of Planetary Radius on Atmospheric Escape of Rocky Exoplanets

On The Foundations Of Anthropic Reasoning: Implications For Life Across The Universe

NASA Curation Community Conversation Webinar

The Atmospheric Chemistry and Surface Interactions on Mars (ACSIOM) Workshop 2025

An ALMA View On Molecular Complexity: Water, Methanol, And Methyl Formate In The HD 100546 And IRS 48 Disks

The Occurrence of Circumbinary Planets Around TESS M-dwarf Eclipsing Binaries