Tag Archives: atmosphere

The source of hydrogen chloride (HCl) in the atmosphere of Mars is recent surface volcanism, subsurface magmatic activity, or aerosol chemistry occurring with the Martian dust particles lofted into the atmosphere. HCl increased during the 2018 global dust storm and declined soon after its end, pointing to the exchange between …

  The potential discovery of phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere last year made headlines around the world. On Earth, phosphine is produced by living things. Any detection of it inside another planet’s atmosphere would be a strong potential indicator of life. One reason folks got excited about the possibility is that …

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter since 2016. One of its instruments is the ultraviolet spectrograph (UVS), which is primarily used to make ultraviolet images of Jupiter’s auroras. During the first four years of the mission, the UVS instrument has observed 11 transient bright flashes. These flashes …

Using high sensitivity spectroscopic observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected a small cyclic molecule called cyclopropenylidene (C3H2) in the atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. This composite image shows an infrared view of Titan. In this image blue represents wavelengths centered at 1.3 …

Solar storms strip a planet’s atmosphere over time, and only a strong magnetosphere would be able to provide maximum protection. Lunar samples gathered by NASA’s Apollo missions recently revealed that the Moon had its own global magnetosphere, lasting from about 4.25 to 2.5 billion years ago. According to new research, …

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Detects Glowing Oxygen Using data from the NOMAD (Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery) ultraviolet and visible spectrometer instrument on board ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), a team of researchers has detected green line dayglow emission in the atmosphere of Mars. An artist’s impression of …

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission has made the first detection of the continuous presence of iron, magnesium, and sodium ions in the electrically charged upper atmosphere (ionosphere) of the Red Planet. MAVEN is exploring Mars’ upper atmosphere in detail to understand how Mars changed from a wet …

If you’re looking for an Earth-like planet with an atmosphere, you need only go outside. Alternatively, you could travel some 39 light-years toward the constellation Vela. That’s where astronomers have discovered an exoplanet called GJ 1132b, which appears to have an atmosphere. While it might not be particularly hospitable to …

According to an analysis of new data from NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft, solar wind and radiation are responsible for stripping the atmosphere of Mars. By measuring light and heavy isotopes of argon in the planet’s atmosphere, the authors have determined that the majority of the planet’s …