Clouds are an integral part of planetary atmospheres, with most planets hosting clouds. The understanding of not only the formation, but also the composition of clouds is crucial to the […]
atmosphere
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release
Physically-motivated Basis Functions For Temperature Maps Of Exoplanets
Thermal phase curves of exoplanet atmospheres have revealed temperature maps as a function of planetary longitude, often by sinusoidal decomposition of the phase curve.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Slowdown In Earth's Rotation Could Have Affected The Oxygen Content Of Its Atmosphere
Virtually all oxygen on Earth was and is produced by photosynthesis, which was invented by tiny organisms, the cyanobacteria, when our planet was still a rather uninhabitable place.
Posted inAriel Mission, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Ariel: Enabling Planetary Science Across Light-years
Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, was adopted as the fourth medium-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2029.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release, Proxima Centauri
An Earth-like Stellar Wind Environment For Proxima Centauri c
A new planet has been recently discovered around Proxima Centauri. With an orbital separation of ∼1.44 au and a minimum mass of about 7 M⊕, Proxima c is a prime […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
Atmospheric Escape Processes and Planetary Atmospheric Evolution
The habitability of the surface of any planet is determined by a complex evolution of its interior, surface, and atmosphere. The electromagnetic and particle radiation of stars drive thermal, chemical […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Press Release
Early Earth's Air Weighed Less Than Half of Today's Atmosphere
The idea that the young Earth had a thicker atmosphere turns out to be wrong. New research from the University of Washington uses bubbles trapped in 2.7 billion-year-old rocks to […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones
Chemical Modeling of Exoplanet Atmospheres
The past twenty years have revealed the diversity of planets that exist in the Universe. It turned out that most of exoplanets are different from the planets of our Solar […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Habitable Zones
Nitrogen Isotopic Composition and Density of the Archean Atmosphere
Understanding the atmosphere’s composition during the Archean eon is a fundamental issue to unravel ancient environmental conditions. We show from the analysis of nitrogen and argon isotopes in fluid inclusions […]
Posted inMars, Meteorites & Asteroids
Meteorites Yield Clues to Mars' Early Atmosphere
Geologists who analyzed 40 meteorites that fell to Earth from Mars unlocked secrets of the Martian atmosphere hidden in the chemical signatures of these ancient rocks. Their study, published April […]