Characterizing rocky exoplanet atmospheres is a key goal of exoplanet science, but interpreting such observations will require understanding the stellar UV irradiation incident on the planet from its host star.
atmosphere
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Scattering Transparency of Clouds in Exoplanet Transit Spectra
The presence of aerosols in an exoplanet atmosphere can veil the underlying material and can lead to a flat transmission spectrum during primary transit observations.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Cloud Behaviour On Tidally Locked Rocky Planets From Global High-resolution Modeling
Determining the behaviour of convection and clouds is one of the biggest challenges in our understanding of exoplanetary climates.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
High-throughput Quantum Chemistry: Empowering The Search For Molecular Candidates Behind Unknown Spectral Signatures In Exoplanetary Atmospheres
The identification of molecules in exoplanetary atmospheres is only possible thanks to the availability of high-resolution molecular spectroscopic data. However, due to its intensive and time-consuming generation process, at present, […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1
Webb Rules Out Thick Carbon Dioxide Atmosphere for Rocky Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c
An international team of researchers has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to calculate the amount of heat energy coming from the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c. The result suggests that […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Missions & Hardware, Neptune, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors, Uranus
Chemical and Isotopic Composition Measurements on Atmospheric Probes Exploring Uranus and Neptune
So far no designated mission to either of the two ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, exists. Almost all of our gathered information on these planets comes from remote sensing.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Status Report, Venus
Venus’ Atmospheric Chemistry and Cloud Characteristics Are Compatible with Venusian Life
Venus is Earth’s sister planet, with similar mass and density but an uninhabitably hot surface, an atmosphere with a water activity 50-100 times lower than anywhere on Earths’ surface, and […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Expanding The Inventory Of Spectral Lines Used To Trace Atmospheric Escape In Exoplanets
Escaping exoplanet atmospheres have been observed as deep transit signatures in a few specific spectral lines. Detections have been made in the hydrogen Ly-α line, the metastable helium line at […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report
Day-night Transport Induced Chemistry And Clouds On WASP-39b I: Gas-phase Composition
JWST has recently detected the first robust photochemical product on an exoplanet: sulfur dioxide (SO2) on WASP-39b (Rustamkulov et al. 2023; Alderson et al. 2023; Tsai et al. 2023b).
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Astronomers Observe Giant Tails of Helium Escaping Jupiter-Like Planet
A team of astronomers has used observations from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory to discover some of the longest tails of gas […]