The earliest atmosphere on Mercury
Mercury is a most unusual planet. The smallest planet in the solar system, and the closest planet to the sun, it is in a 3:2 spin resonance, slowly turning and experiencing scorching heat up to 430 degrees Celsius, and the night side frigid, down to.....»»
Doomed US lunar lander now headed for Earth: company
A private US lunar lander that has been leaking fuel throughout its journey is now headed for Earth and will likely burn up in the atmosphere, the company said Saturday......»»
Venus" atmospheric chemical anomalies may motivate future astrobiology missions
When scientists detected phosphine in Venus' atmosphere in 2020, it triggered renewed, animated discussions about Venus and its potential habitability. It would be weird if the detection didn't generate interest since phosphine is a potential biomark.....»»
The first assessment of toxic heavy metal pollution in the Southern Hemisphere over the last 2,000 years
Human activity, from burning fossil fuels and fireplaces to the contaminated dust produced by mining, alters Earth's atmosphere in countless ways. Records of these impacts over time are preserved in everlasting polar ice that serves as a sort of time.....»»
"Self-eating" rocket could help UK take a big bite of space industry
New developments on a nearly century-old concept for a "self-eating" rocket engine capable of flight beyond the Earth's atmosphere could help the U.K. take a bigger bite of the space industry......»»
Webb finds signs of possible aurorae on isolated brown dwarf
Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have found a brown dwarf (an object more massive than Jupiter but smaller than a star) with infrared emission from methane, likely due to energy in its upper atmosphere. This is an unexpected discov.....»»
Shape matters: Study finds microplastic fibers may travel as far as the stratosphere
How far microplastics travel in the atmosphere depends crucially on particle shape, according to a recent study by scientists at the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen. Although spherica.....»»
Uncertainty abounds in seeding the sky to fight climate change, says study
As greenhouse gas levels increase in Earth's atmosphere, scientists are considering ways to temporarily limit rising temperatures. One idea is to inject aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect incoming sunlight, thereby reducing global warming and.....»»
Process for the optical analysis of trace gases optimized
Laser-based absorption spectroscopy is an important method for determining the concentration of gas components in a sample. Modern devices are highly specialized for detecting very specific gases, such as trace gases in the atmosphere, in combustion.....»»
A Jupiter-sized planet has been hiding a big secret: A 350,000-mile-long tail
WASP-69b is having a hot girl summer that never ends. The huge gaseous exoplanet, roughly the size of Jupiter and approximately 160 light years from Earth, orbits its searing host star so closely that its atmosphere is boiling away at a rate of 200,0.....»»
Secrets of a hot Saturn and its spotted star unlocked
A team of astronomers including McGill Professor Nicolas Cowan has unraveled the enigmatic atmosphere of the exoplanet HAT-P-18 b, shedding light on its intriguing blend of gases, clouds, and even the effects of its star's activity.....»»
Gliese 367 b is a dark and hot sub-Earth with no atmosphere, study finds
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have investigated a nearby sub-Earth exoplanet known as Gliese 367 b. The obtained results indicate that this alien world is dark, hot and lacks a detectable atmosphere. The new findings were p.....»»
Researchers discover how atmospheric feldspar dust contributes to cloud formation
Feldspar is a ubiquitous mineral and makes up about half of the Earth's crust. In the Earth's atmosphere, feldspars play a surprisingly important role. Fine powder carried by air influences cloud formation. Water molecules adhere better to feldspar d.....»»
Dell XPS 14 vs. HP Spectre x360 14: well, this is interesting
The Dell XPS 14 and HP Spectre x360 14 are two of the earliest laptops announced with Intel's new Meteor Lake chipset. Which is the better 14-inch laptop?.....»»
Increase in rice farming in sub-Saharan Africa found to be producing rising amounts of methane
A team of engineers and atmospheric scientists at Harvard University, working with a colleague from the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has calculated the increased amount of methane being expelled into the atmosphere.....»»
Mysterious missing component in the clouds of Venus revealed
What are the clouds of Venus made of? Scientists know it's mainly made of sulfuric acid droplets, with some water, chlorine, and iron. Their concentrations vary with height in the thick and hostile Venusian atmosphere. But until now they have been un.....»»
High levels of mercury traced to particular cell types in brains of mammals
Exposure to mercury (Hg) is extremely neurotoxic in most chemical forms. Even scientists who study mercury compounds are at risk due to potential exposure to Hg. Renowned physicist Michael Faraday suffered from Hg poisoning due to prolonged exposure.....»»
New theoretical framework unlocks mysteries of synchronization in turbulent dynamics
Weather forecasting is important for various sectors, including agriculture, military operations, and aviation, as well as for predicting natural disasters like tornados and cyclones. It relies on predicting the movement of air in the atmosphere, whi.....»»
"Giant" predator worms more than half a billion years old discovered in North Greenland
Fossils of a new group of animal predators have been located in the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet fossil locality in North Greenland. These large worms may be some of the earliest carnivorous animals to have colonized the water column more than 518 mi.....»»
Iron snow ebb and flow may cause magnetic fields to come and go
Just as snow crystals form in the upper atmosphere, then fall to lower, warmer elevations and melt, scientists believe a phenomenon called iron snow happens in the molten iron cores of some planetary bodies. Cooling near the core-mantle boundary crea.....»»
TRAPPIST-1c isn"t the exo-Venus we were hoping for, but don"t blame the star
A recent study posted to the arXiv preprint server and accepted to The Astrophysical Journal uses computer models to investigate why the exoplanet, TRAPPIST-1c, could not possess a thick carbon dioxide (CO2) atmosphere despite it receiving the same a.....»»