Clouds form and dissipate on a gas giant orbiting a Sun-like star.
salts & sodium
Posted inNews
Mmm, Salt—Europa’s Hidden Ocean May Contain the Table Variety
Hubble Space Telescope observations suggest that sodium chloride exists in young, geologically active regions on Europa, likely fed by upwelling from the moon’s subsurface ocean.
Posted inNews
Chemical Patterns May Predict Stars That Host Giant Planets
Stars with giant planets tend to have a few key elements in abundance. A new algorithm used these patterns to predict hundreds of stars that will likely have exoplanets if we go looking for them.
Posted inNews
Take Weather Prediction with a Grain of Salt and It Gets Better
Sea surface salinity is starting to rival other methods for seasonal rain forecasting.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Local Heat Source Needed to Form Liquid Water Lake on Mars
Thermal modeling suggests that active magmatism in the past few hundred thousand years could account for the presence of a large lake previously hypothesized beneath the Red Planet’s southern ice cap.
Posted inNews
Waves of Deadly Brine Can Slosh After Submarine Landslides
Brine pools—hypersaline, low-oxygen waters deadly to many forms of ocean life—can experience waves hundreds of meters high when hit by a landslide, potentially overspilling their deep-sea basins.
Posted inGeoFIZZ
A Rock Guide to Fireworks
Before a firework was red, it was a strontium salt waiting for its moment.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Seeking Salt That Surfaces from Europa’s Hidden Ocean
Irradiation-induced color changes in sodium chloride could reveal whether it came from ocean water mixing with surface water, a key component of the moon’s potential to support life.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Reducing Errors in Satellite-Derived Arctic Sea Ice Thicknesses
Salty snow throws off satellite-based estimates of Arctic sea ice thickness by up to 25%. A new method seeks to fix that.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Satellites Accurately Capture Ocean Salinity in the Arctic
On-the-ground measurements are notoriously difficult in the harsh environment of the Arctic, but satellites could help close the gap in measuring sea surface salinity.