On many exoplanets, conditions are so exotic that minerals form clouds and fall as rain. Recent studies revealed the rocky weather on these four exoplanets in more detail than ever before.
spectroscopy
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Some Chemicals Lingered for Weeks After Ohio Train Derailment
Researchers drove around a van outfitted with a sensitive mass spectrometer to measure airborne chemicals weeks after the disaster.
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As Wildfires Grow, So Could Methane Emissions
Wildfires that wreaked havoc on California in 2020 filled the atmosphere with a potent greenhouse gas.
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Using Cave Formations to Investigate Ancient Wildfires
From sediment cores to speleothems, environmental archives are helping us to understand the history of wildfires.
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Newly Discovered Salts May Exist on Icy Moons
For the first time in more than a century, scientists have identified new sodium chloride crystals. The discovery may reconcile puzzling spectroscopic images of Europa’s surface.
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UV Radiation Contributed to Earth’s Biggest Mass Extinction
To find the first direct evidence of heightened UV radiation during the end-Permian mass extinction, researchers turned to chemical evidence preserved in pollen grains.
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Community Scientists Recover Micrometeorites from Lake Michigan
A team of scientists, educators, and teenagers discovered the objects, some of which may have been delivered by a fireball that streaked across the sky in 2017.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Unified Atmospheric Model for Uranus and Neptune
In a new model, three substantial atmospheric layers appear consistent between the ice giants.
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Asteroid May Be a Chip off the Old Moon
Spectral data suggest that Kamo‘oalewa, a near-Earth asteroid, has a composition similar to lunar rocks.
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Lasers Have the Makings of a 21st-Century Geoscience Tool
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is a versatile geochemical tool being used in a wide range of applications, from Mars rovers to earthly rock identification.