[University of Maryland] Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of astronomers led by the University of Maryland identified water, methane and ammonia in the atmosphere of HATS-6 […]
atmosphere
Posted inLava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds
Revealing The Shiny Nature Of Lava Worlds: Small Planet Phase Curves With TESS
[astro-ph.EP] Recent thermal emission observations suggest that `lava worlds’–Earth-sized exoplanets hot enough to melt their silicate surfaces–have atmospheres on a population-level.
![Atmospheric and water loss of an Earth-like planet for three stellar systems: (e,f) M-dwarf (TRAPPIST-1) central habitable zone. The mass losses shown in a,b,c and d are after 6 Gyr of system integration. -- Full chart below [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Simulated-Effects.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Simulated Effects of Radioactive Elements on Magnetic Evolution and Atmospheric Mass Loss of Earth-like Planets
[astro-ph.EP] Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered in recent decades, yet Earth remains the only known world with life.
![Stellar age versus planet radius for all planets in the Mission Candidate Sample. Planets younger than 200 Myr are highlighted in blue. The four planets marked with a star represent promising young targets. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Probing.png?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
Posted inAriel Mission
Probing Exoplanetary Chemistry with Ariel: Scientific Priorities and Observational Strategies
[astro-ph.EP] Over the past two decades, increasingly precise observations have revealed that exoplanet atmospheres are chemically diverse and often far from equilibrium, with processes such as vertical mixing, photochemistry, and […]
Posted inLava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds
Thermal Evolution of Lava Planets Across System Ages: Predictions for Hell of a Survey
[astro-ph.EP] Ultra-short-period (USP) rocky exoplanets can have dayside temperatures high enough to maintain permanent magma oceans, sitting at the intersection of interior geophysics and atmospheric chemistry. Coupled feedbacks between the […]
Posted inBrown Dwarfs
Water Cloud and Chemical Modulations in the Coldest Brown Dwarf
[astro-ph.EP] We present high signal-to-noise, medium resolution (R ~ 1000), time-series JWST/NIRSpec spectra of WISE 0855 (265K), the coldest known brown dwarf.
![Radial gas temperature maps for planets within the in-house 3D GCM framework. The panels illustrate equatorial slice plots of (Tgas, pgas) across three global temperature regimes: 800 K (left), 1600 K (center), and 2400 K (right). Host star types vary by row, descending from A-type to G-type and M-type stars [1] -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Faithful.png?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Faithful Neural Embeddings For 3D Exoplanet Climate Modeling
[astro-ph.EP] With the rapid advancement of telescopes like JWST and Ariel, there is an urgent need for efficient 3D climate models to interpret observations of exoplanet atmospheres.
Posted inImaging & Spectroscopy
The Science Potential of Characterizing Gas Giant Exoplanets with HWO
[astro-ph.EP] With the ability to directly image Earth-like exoplanets and search their atmospheres for biosignatures, the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will also collect high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) reflected-light photometry […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Graph Neural Networks For Exoplanet Atmospheres
[astro-ph.IM] Calculating disequilibrium chemistry in exoplanet atmospheres remains a significant computational bottleneck in atmospheric retrievals. The increasing observational precision from facilities such as JWST and the Ariel mission requires including […]
![Radius valley plot showing the sub-populations of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes as circles and triangles, respectively. The black line and grey shaded region denote an average radius valley (Ho & Van Eylen 2023) for the population and its 1𝜎 uncertainty region, respectively. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/No-Statistically-.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inStellar Cartography
No Statistically Significant Evidence For A Correlation Between Stellar And planetary Composition
[astro-ph.EP] The chemical compositions of planets and their hosts stars are intrinsically linked, having formed from the same protostellar material.