Mushballs—giant, slushy hailstones made from a mixture of ammonia and water—may be responsible for an atmospheric anomaly on Neptune and Uranus that has been puzzling scientists. A study presented by Tristan Guillot at ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 16, 2021
0
298
Using the SPIRou spectropolarimeter on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, a team led by Stefan Pelletier, a PhD student at Université de Montréal's Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), studied the atmosphere ...
Astronomy
Jul 28, 2021
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799
An international collaboration of astronomers led by a researcher from the Astrobiology Center and Queen's University Belfast has detected a new chemical signature in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet—i.e., a planet ...
Astronomy
Apr 27, 2021
2
371
The SwRI-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) orbiting Jupiter aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft has detected new faint aurora features, characterized by ring-like emissions, which expand rapidly over time. SwRI scientists determined ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 29, 2021
1
150
After traveling several billion miles toward the Sun, a wayward young comet-like object orbiting among the giant planets has found a temporary parking place along the way. The object has settled near a family of captured ...
Space Exploration
Feb 25, 2021
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1766
From aboard the Juno spacecraft, a Southwest Research Institute-led instrument observing auroras serendipitously spotted a bright flash above Jupiter's clouds last spring. The Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) team studied the ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 22, 2021
1
53
One of the properties that make a planet suitable for life is the presence of a weather system. Exoplanets are too far away to directly observe this, but astronomers can search for substances in the atmosphere that make a ...
Astronomy
Feb 3, 2021
0
431
When it launches in the mid-2020s, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will explore an expansive range of infrared astrophysics topics. One eagerly anticipated survey will use a gravitational effect called microlensing ...
Astronomy
Jan 25, 2021
0
146
The solar system's two biggest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, came within planetary kissing range in Monday's evening sky, an intimacy that will not occur again until 2080.
Space Exploration
Dec 21, 2020
1
10038
Jupiter and Saturn will merge in the night sky Monday, appearing closer to one another than they have since Galileo's time in the 17th century.
Space Exploration
Dec 18, 2020
0
1510
