A study suggests that known combustion and photochemical sources of nitrous acid, a precursor to ground-level ozone, are enough to explain levels seen in the atmosphere.
unsolved mysteries
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Jupiter's Auroras Recharge Between Solar Storms
New research suggests that Jupiter's magnetic field replenishes its stock of plasma during lulls in solar activity, creating spectacular displays when a solar storm hits.
Posted inNews
Scientists Solve Charon's Red Mystery
Why are Charon's poles dusted with reddish material?
Posted inNews
A Flip-Flopping Climate Could Explain Mars's Watery Past
A new hypothesis might reconcile two opposing theories that have tried to explain Mars's mysterious history for more than 40 years.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mysterious Anomaly Interrupts Stratospheric Wind Pattern
For the first time, scientists have observed a deviation from the typical alternating pattern of easterly and westerly winds in the equatorial stratosphere.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Even the Magnetosphere Has Problems
In a new conference and collection of papers, international space physicists narrow down the enigmas that puzzle magnetospheric science.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mysteries of the Magnetosphere
Scientists investigate how dipolarization fronts in Earth's protective magnetosphere interact with the environment around them.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Chasing Down the Slow Solar Wind
The Sun's plasma blasts Earth’s magnetosphere at more than a million miles per hour. The fastest pours from holes in the corona, but until recently the source of the "slow" solar wind was a mystery.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mysterious "Necklace Echoes" in the Sky Explained
Scientists studying a 50–year–old mystery in the Earth's ionosphere have come up with their best explanation of it yet.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mysterious Heavy Ion Beams Above Mars Explained
NASA's latest mission to Mars has uncovered the origins of fast-moving streams of particles high above the planet, flowing against the solar wind.