A Puzzling Collapse of Earth's Upper Atmosphere

NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet's atmosphere. High above Earth's surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called "the thermosphere" recently collapsed and now is rebounding ...

Rapid destruction of Earth-like atmospheres by young stars

The discoveries of thousands of planets orbiting stars outside our solar system has made questions about the potential for life to form on these planets fundamentally important in modern science. Fundamentally important for ...

Solar activity can affect re-entry of UARS satellite

The world's eyes are on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) headed toward re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. The satellite is currently predicted to re-enter sometime on the afternoon of Friday, September 23, 2011, ...

Ten successful years of mapping the middle atmosphere

(PhysOrg.com) -- On December 7, 2001, a Delta II rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying a spacecraft designed to observe a little known area of the atmosphere that experiences some of the most dramatic energy ...

Italian all-sky imager tracks auroral red arcs over Europe

During geomagnetic storms, stable auroral red (SAR) arcs reach down from polar latitudes, their faint glow stretching equatorward of the traditional auroral oval. Invisible to the naked eye, SAR arcs are an upper atmospheric ...

NASA extends TIMED mission for fourth time

Nine years after beginning its unprecedented look at the gateway between Earth's environment and space, not to mention collecting more data on the upper atmosphere than any other satellite, NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere ...

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