University of California - Berkeley Archives

Models for the interior structures of the ice-giant planets Uranus and Neptune have two distinct, intermediate layers: an upper, water-rich convecting layer where disorganized magnetic fields are generated, and a lower, non-convecting hydrocarbon-rich layer. New computer simulations show that icy materials naturally separate at high pressure and temperature into these two layers. Credit Burkhard Militzer, UC Berkeley

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Neptune, Press Release, Uranus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Clue To What Lies Beneath The Bland Surfaces Of Uranus And Neptune

by Keith CowingNovember 26, 2024May 12, 2025

Diamond rain? Super-ionic water? These are just two proposals that planetary scientists have come up with for what lies beneath the thick, bluish, hydrogen-and-helium atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune, our […]

The newly named species Barroeca monosierra discovered in Mono Lake. Colonies of these organisms consist of numerous identical cells (cyan), each with flagella (green) that allow them to propel themselves through the water. This choanoflagellate colony hosts its own microbiome (red), something never before seen in these organisms. The extracellular matrix with which the bacteria interact is shown in white. CREDIT Davis Laundon and Pawel Burkhardt, Sars Centre, Norway; Kent McDonald and Nicole King, UC Berkeley

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release

An Earthling The Size Of A Dust Grain Found Hiding In California’s Mono Lake

by Keith CowingAugust 23, 2024

Mono Lake in the Eastern Sierra Nevada is known for its towering tufa formations, abundant brine shrimp and black clouds of alkali flies uniquely adapted to the salty, arsenic- and […]

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Io, Press Release

Webb Telescope Offers New Views Of Ganymede And Io

by Keith CowingJuly 28, 2023

With its sensitive infrared cameras and high-resolution spectrometer, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is revealing new secrets of Jupiter’s Galilean satellites, in particular Ganymede, the largest moon, and Io, […]

Breakthrough Listen uses radio telescopes to monitor emissions from hundreds of star systems near Earth in search of narrowband signals that could be intentional communications or radio leakage from civilizations on other planets. CREDIT Zayna Sheikh, Breakthrough Listen

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Press Release, SETI & Technosignatures

When ET calls, Can We Be Sure We’re Not Being Spoofed?

by Keith CowingJuly 17, 2023July 17, 2023

Scientists have devised a new technique for finding and vetting possible radio signals from other civilizations in our galaxy — a major advance in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) […]

Hormiphora californensis, called the California sea gooseberry, is a comb jelly, or ctenophore, common in California coastal waters. Ctenophores have eight sets of cilia running down their side, which they use to propel themselves through the oceans in search of food. This specimen was observed on 2016 by MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts in the Monterey Canyon at a depth of approximately 280 meters. CREDIT Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

What Did Earth’s Earliest Animals Look Like?

by Keith CowingMay 17, 2023May 19, 2023

For more than a century, biologists have wondered what the earliest animals were like when they first arose in the ancient oceans over half a billion years ago.

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release

Earth-sun Distance Dramatically Alters Seasons In The Equatorial Pacific In A 22,000-year Cycle

by Keith CowingNovember 11, 2022November 11, 2022

Weather and climate modelers understand pretty well how seasonal winds and ocean currents affect El Niño patterns in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, impacting weather across the United States and […]