Exoplanet Atmosphere

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Illustration of a rocky exoplanet and its star. The star is in the background at the lower left and appears somewhat, but not significantly, smaller in the sky than the planet. It has a bright orange-red glow, and appears to have an active surface. The planet is in the foreground to the upper right of the star. The left quarter of the planet (the side facing the star) is lit, while the rest is in shadow. The planet has hints of a rocky, partly molten surface beneath the haze of a thin atmosphere. The boundary between the day and night sides of the planet is fuzzy.

NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet

7 min read

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet…

Article2 weeks ago

Illustration showing a hazy blue planet against the black background of space. The planet is in the left side of the frame. The axis is tilted roughly 20 degrees counter-clockwise from vertical. The eastern side (right half) is lit by a star out of view and the western side (left half) is in shadow. The terminator (the boundary between the day and night sides) is fuzzy. There are white patchy clouds visible on the dayside, near the terminator, along the equator, that appear to be originating from the nightside.

NASA’s Webb Maps Weather on Planet 280 Light-Years Away

6 min read

An international team of researchers has successfully used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to map the weather on the hot…

Article3 weeks ago

NASA Astronomer Sees Power in Community, Works to Build More

4 min read

Science is often portrayed as a solitary affair, where discoveries are made by lone geniuses toiling in isolation. But Dr.…

Article3 months ago

Webb Detects Tiny Quartz Crystals in the Clouds of a Hot Gas Giant

6 min read

Image: WASP-17 b Illustration Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected evidence for quartz nanocrystals in the high-altitude…

Article7 months ago

Mark Swain, an astrophysicist at JPL, stands in the "cage" of the Hale Telescope with the NESSI instrument on Feb. 2, 2018. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NESSI Emerges as New Tool for Exoplanet Atmospheres

6 min read

NESSI, a new instrument on Southern California's Hale Telescope, could help unlock secrets of exoplanet atmospheres.

Article4 years ago

An artist's conception of HD 209458 b, an exoplanet whose atmosphere is being torn off at more than 35,000 km/hour by the radiation of its close-by parent star. This hot Jupiter was the first alien world discovered via the transit method, and the first planet to have its atmosphere studied. Image credit: NASA/European Space Agency/Alfred Vidal-Madjar (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS)

Happy Anniversary, Osiris

1 min read

Today marks the anniversary of the discovery exoplanet HD 209458b. Nicknamed "Osiris," after the Egyptian god of the underworld, this…

Article9 years ago

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