atmosphere
Engineers Want to Make Methanol by Pulling Carbon Right Out of the Air
Methanol is one of our most extensively used raw materials. It's used as a solvent, a pesticide, and in combination…
Venus is Like an Exoplanet that’s Right Next Door
We're lucky to have a neighbour like Venus, even though it's totally inhospitable, wildly different from the other rocky planets,…
How Can We Know if We’re Looking at Habitable exo-Earths or Hellish exo-Venuses?
The differences between Earth and Venus are obvious to us. One is radiant with life and adorned with glittering seas,…
Watch What Happens to Astronauts When the International Space Station Gets an Orbital Reboost
This is reminiscent of going down slide on the playground – and then immediately getting back in line to go…
How did Earth go From Molten Hellscape to Habitable Planet?
Earth formed from the Sun's protoplanetary disk about 4.6 billion years ago. In the beginning, it was a molten spheroid…
With no Solid Surface, the Atmosphere of Jupiter Behaves Quite Differently Than Earth
Jupiter’s atmosphere has plenty of distinct features, including lightning and the Great Red Spot. But the underlying processes that drive…
An Exoplanet Reaches 2400 C in One Hemisphere. Does it Really Rain Iron?
WASP-76b is an ultra-hot Jupiter about 640 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pisces. A few years ago it…
Astronomers Have Found the Perfect Exoplanet to Study Another World’s Atmosphere
TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has found a new planet, and the discovery of this sub-Neptune exoplanet has scientists excited…
Earth’s Atmosphere Can Generate a “Space Hurricane”
There are hurricanes in space. Researchers looking through archival data found evidence of a previously unobserved phenomenon — a giant…
We Could Find Extraterrestrial Civilizations by Their Air Pollution
Upcoming telescopes will give us more power to search for biosignatures on all the exoplanets we've found. Much of the…