planetary atmospheres Archives

A purple spiral galaxy is visible in the night sky.

Research & Developments

NASA Rushes to Buoy a Swiftly Sinking Telescope

by Emily Gardner 30 June 202630 June 2026

The Neil Gehrels’ Swift Observatory is plummeting toward Earth, and NASA is spending $30 million to try to stop it.

An artist’s interpretation of a reddish planet shows clouds swirling at its top and trailing down its left side.

News

A Hot Jupiter’s Cloudy Mornings and Clear Evenings Provide Clues to Its Chemistry

by Javier Barbuzano 16 June 202616 June 2026

An improved weather forecast for an exoplanet 700 light-years away has revealed new details about its true chemical composition, clarifying more than a decade of blurry data.

The Sun shines through the edges of Titan’s atmosphere, making it look like a ring of fire in black and white. In the foreground, Saturn’s concentric rings are brightly lit.

News

Titanic Shake-Up Could Explain Saturn’s Young Rings and Strange Moons

by Matthew R. Francis 2 April 20261 May 2026

A new model shows how the migration of Titan could have destroyed another moon, creating Saturn’s rings and the moon Hyperion. And, the model suggests, this all happened in the past billion years.

A video shows a blue circle against a darker blue background. Within the circle, waves of pale blue billow out from the center and create static throughout the circle.

News

Solar Flare Spotlights the Martian Ionosphere

by Damond Benningfield 27 March 202627 March 2026

A “lucky” linkup between orbiters helped scientists study how the Red Planet’s ionosphere responds to solar events.

Part of a hazy orange planet appears against a dark background.

News

A “Lava World” Unexpectedly Hosts an Atmosphere

by Katherine Kornei 7 January 20267 January 2026

TOI-561 b, an exoplanet roughly 275 light-years away, seems to have a thick atmosphere despite being wildly irradiated by its host star.

A large, angular adobe building is seta gainst the backdrop of a rocky mountain covered in evergreen trees.

Research & Developments, Uncategorized

Trump Administration Plans to Break Up NCAR

by Emily Gardner and Grace van Deelen 17 December 202511 March 2026

The Trump administration is planning to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, one of the world’s leading climate and Earth science research laboratories, according to a statement from Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to USA Today.

The planet Venus appears as a circular shape against a black background, with the right side sharply defined but the far left side fading into shadow. White, gray, and light orange swirling shapes cover the surface, appearing whiter, more linear, and more solid at the top and bottom of the circle but patchier toward the middle, with more patches of gray and light orange.

Research Spotlights

Key Driver of Extreme Winds on Venus Identified

by Sarah Stanley 19 November 202519 November 2025

A new study suggests that a once-daily atmospheric tidal cycle may be a bigger driver of rapid Venusian winds than previously thought.

Three images of the Jovian moon Io show different distributions of colors. The far left image has a spot of red and yellow at bottom left, and the other two images each have a spot of red and yellow in the top half.

Research Spotlights

Webb Telescope Spies Io’s Volcanic Activity and Sulfurous Atmosphere

by Sarah Stanley 4 November 20254 November 2025

New James Webb Space Telescope images reveal cooling lava, volcanic sulfur monoxide gas, and sulfur gas emissions created by interactions between plasma and the moon’s atmosphere.