A pandemic project analyzing a trove of infrared images revealed an unexplained phenomenon taking place in Neptune’s atmosphere.
planetary atmospheres
Mars’s Dust Cycle Controls Its Polar Vortex and Snowfall
On Earth, the water cycle is a dominant climate force. On Mars, it’s the dust.
Young Ponds on Mars
A detailed study of evaporite (chloride) deposits on Mars shows that small bodies of surface water persisted until about 2.5 Ga, more recently than previously thought.
The Possible Evolution of an Exoplanet’s Atmosphere
Scientific sleuths explore data gathered trillions of kilometers away and put forth different, and often conflicting, ideas to reconstruct the gaseous envelope on a distant rocky exoplanet, GJ 1132 b.
Martian Dust Activities Induce Electrochemistry
Amorphous materials generated from sulfur and chloride salts by electrostatic discharge in a Mars chamber suggest widespread electrical processes during dust activities.
¿Podría la Vida Estar Flotando en las Nubes de Venus?
Si están presentes, los microbios podrían explicar patrones de evolución en la atmósfera planetaria de Venus, al observarse con luz ultravioleta.
Capturing Heat-Driven Atmospheric Tides on Mars
Spacecraft observations and model simulations provide new insights into tidal patterns that transport momentum and energy into the planet’s upper atmosphere.
Zhang Receives 2019 Ronald Greeley Early Career Award in Planetary Sciences
Xi Zhang received the 2019 Ronald Greeley Early Career Award in Planetary Sciences at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2019, held 9–13 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes “significant early career contributions to planetary science.”
Machine Learning Can Help Decode Alien Skies—Up to a Point
Astronomers are testing the tools that might help them keep up with the upcoming storm of exoplanet atmosphere data.
How Mars’s Magnetic Field Let Its Atmosphere Slip Away
A planet’s magnetic field usually protects its atmosphere from being blown away by its star. But new research suggests Mars’s weak magnetic field may have helped its atmosphere escape.