Atmosphere
The Heaviest Element Ever Seen in an Exoplanet’s Atmosphere: Barium
Astronomers have spotted barium in the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet. With its 56 protons, you have to run your…
Scientists Discover a New Way Exoplanets Could Make Oxygen; Unfortunately, it Doesn’t Require Life
Finding oxygen in an exoplanet's atmosphere is a clue that life may be at work. On Earth, photosynthetic organisms absorb…
These Ancient Microbes Give a Glimpse of What Extraterrestrial Life Might Look Like
Will we discover simple life somewhere? Maybe on Enceladus or Europa in our Solar System, or further away on an…
A New Instrument is Going to the ISS to Study the Climate Impact of Dust in Earth’s Upper Atmosphere
People often seem surprised when they learn that NASA doesn't just look out to the other planets, stars, and galaxies.…
Smaller, Ground-Based Telescopes can Study Exoplanet Atmospheres too
The next step to understanding exoplanets is to understand their atmospheres better. Astronomers can determine a planet's mass, density, and…
We Might Know Why Mars Lost its Magnetic Field
Mars is a parched planet ruled by global dust storms. It's also a frigid world, where night-time winter temperatures fall…
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…
Gliese 486b is a Hellish World With Temperatures Above 700 Kelvin
The CARMENES consortium recently discovered a super-Earth just 21 light-years away that will be the perfect test case for exoplanets…
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…
Astronomers Find a Planet Like Jupiter, but It Doesn’t Have any Clouds
Can you picture Jupiter without any observable clouds or haze? It isn't easy since Jupiter's latitudinal cloud bands and its…