atmosphere
Millions of Phones Could Map the Earth’s Ionosphere
We are all familiar with the atmosphere of the Earth and part of this, the ionosphere, is a layer of…
An Otherworldly Cloud Over New Zealand
Filmmakers love New Zealand. Its landscapes evoke other worlds, which explains why so much of The Lord of the Rings…
Experimental Radar Technique Reveals the Composition of Titan’s Seas
The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn generated so much data that giving it a definitive value is impossible. It's sufficient to…
What Deadly Venus Can Tell Us About Life on Other Worlds
Even though Venus and Earth are so-called sister planets, they're as different as heaven and hell. Earth is a natural…
What Can Early Earth Teach Us About the Search for Life?
Earth is the only life-supporting planet we know of, so it's tempting to use it as a standard in the…
Life Might Be Difficult to Find on a Single Planet But Obvious Across Many Worlds
If we could detect a clear, unambiguous biosignature on just one of the thousands of exoplanets we know of, it…
The LIFE Telescope Passed its First Test: It Detected Biosignatures on Earth.
We know that there are thousands of exoplanets out there, with many millions more waiting to be discovered. But the…
The Atmosphere of an Exoplanet Reveals Secrets About Its Surface
Astronomers have now characterized the atmospheres of several exoplanets, with JWST and upcoming missions promising to turn that into the…
How Do Lava Worlds Become Earth-Like, Living Planets?
Earth was once entirely molten. Planetary scientists call this phase in a planet's evolution a magma ocean, and Earth may…
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…