Quantcast
Channel: Phys.org news tagged with:upper atmosphere
Browsing latest articles
Browse All 136 View Live

Image: CubeSats deployed outside station's Kibo lab module

A pair of CubeSats, with the Earth's limb in the background, moments after being ejected from a small satellite deployer outside of the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module on...

View Article



Smoke from wildfires can have lasting climate impact

The wildfire that has raged across more than 150,000 acres of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and Florida has sent smoke billowing into the sky as far as the eye can see. Now, new research published by...

View Article

Juno mission to Jupiter delivers first science results

NASA's Juno mission, led by Southwest Research Institute's Dr. Scott Bolton, is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about Jupiter specifically, and gas giants in general, according to a pair of...

View Article

MAVEN's top 10 discoveries at Mars

On June 17, NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) will celebrate 1,000 Earth days in orbit around the Red Planet. Since its launch in November 2013 and its orbit insertion in...

View Article

Scientists solve mystery of unexplained 'bright nights'

Dating back to the first century, scientists, philosophers and reporters have noted the occasional occurrence of "bright nights," when an unexplained glow in the night sky lets observers see distant...

View Article


Solar minimum is coming

High up in the clear blue noontime sky, the sun appears to be much the same day-in, day-out, year after year.

View Article

Image: Saturn and rings, 7 June 2017

The international Cassini spacecraft has completed half of the 22 dives between Saturn and its rings before concluding its mission on 15 September. Cassini has been exploring the Saturnian system for...

View Article

Has Cassini found a universal driver for prebiotic chemistry at Titan?

An important type of molecule that helps produce complex organic material has been detected within Titan's hazy upper atmosphere by a UCL-led team as part of the international Cassini-Huygens mission.

View Article


Image: Haze on the Saturn horizon

This false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft gazes toward the rings beyond Saturn's sunlit horizon. Along the limb (the planet's edge) at left can be seen a thin, detached haze. This haze...

View Article


Cassini to begin final five orbits around Saturn

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will enter new territory in its final mission phase, the Grand Finale, as it prepares to embark on a set of ultra-close passes through Saturn's upper atmosphere with its final...

View Article

Dino-killing asteroid could have thrust Earth into 2 years of darkness

Tremendous amounts of soot, lofted into the air from global wildfires following a massive asteroid strike 66 million years ago, would have plunged Earth into darkness for nearly two years, new research...

View Article

The moving Martian bow shock

As the energetic particles of the solar wind speed across interplanetary space, their motion is modified by objects in their path. A study, based on data from ESA's Mars Express orbiter, has thrown new...

View Article

Most advanced space weather radar in the world to be built in the Arctic

The most advanced space weather radar in the world is to be built in the Arctic by an international partnership including the UK, thanks to new investment, in the region of £4 to £6m from NERC.

View Article


VLT makes first detection of titanium oxide in an exoplanet

A team of astronomers led by Elyar Sedaghati, an ESO fellow and recent graduate of TU Berlin, has examined the atmosphere of the exoplanet [WASP-19b] in greater detail than ever before. This remarkable...

View Article

Large solar storm sparks global aurora and doubles radiation levels on the...

An unexpectedly strong blast from the Sun hit Mars this month, observed by NASA missions in orbit and on the surface.

View Article


ICON satellite explores the boundary between Earth and space

On Dec. 8, 2017, NASA launches the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, a low-Earth orbiting satellite that will give us new information about how Earth's atmosphere interacts with near-Earth...

View Article

Image: Solar surface from hot to hottest

This sequence of images shows the Sun from its surface to its upper atmosphere all taken at about the same time on Oct. 27, 2017. The first shows the surface of the Sun in filtered white light; the...

View Article


Atmospheric beacons guide NASA scientists in search for life

Some exoplanets shine brighter than others in the search for life beyond the solar system. New NASA research proposes a novel approach to sniffing out exoplanet atmospheres. It takes advantage of...

View Article

Heavy nitrogen molecules reveal planetary-scale tug-of-war

Nature whispers its stories in a faint molecular language, and Rice University scientist Laurence Yeung and colleagues can finally tell one of those stories this week, thanks to a one-of-a-kind...

View Article

NASA's TSIS-1 keeps an eye on sun's power over ozone

High in the atmosphere, above weather systems, is a layer of ozone gas. Ozone is Earth's natural sunscreen, absorbing the sun's most harmful ultraviolet radiation and protecting living things below....

View Article

Exoplanet has smothering stratosphere without water

A NASA-led team has found evidence that the oversized exoplanet WASP-18b is wrapped in a smothering stratosphere loaded with carbon monoxide and devoid of water. The findings come from a new analysis...

View Article


Discovery about rare nitrogen molecules offers clues to makeup of other...

A team of scientists using a state-of-the-art UCLA instrument reports the discovery of a planetary-scale "tug-of-war" of life, deep Earth and the upper atmosphere that is expressed in atmospheric...

View Article


Researchers share perspective on key elements of ozone layer recovery

Each year, ozone-depleting compounds in the upper atmosphere destroy the protective ozone layer, and in particular above Antarctica. The ozone layer acts as Earth's sunscreen by absorbing harmful...

View Article

NASA solves how a Jupiter jet stream shifts into reverse

Speeding through the atmosphere high above Jupiter's equator is an east-west jet stream that reverses course on a schedule almost as predictable as a Tokyo train's. Now, a NASA-led team has identified...

View Article

Two heads are better than one: ICON and GOLD teaming up to explore earth's...

Like Earth, space has weather. Except instead of swirling winds and downpours of precipitation, space weather is defined by shifting electric and magnetic fields and rains of charged particles. At the...

View Article


NASA Alaska-launched rockets to study space X-ray emissions and create polar...

NASA rockets launched during the Alaskan winter typically explore the interaction of solar winds with Earth's atmosphere and the resulting auroras that dance across the night sky. However this winter,...

View Article

Solar eclipse caused bow waves in Earth's atmosphere

The celebrated Great American Eclipse of August 2017 crossed the continental U.S. in 90 minutes, and totality lasted no longer than a few minutes at any one location. The event is well in the rear-view...

View Article

Climate engineering, once started, would have severe impacts if stopped

Facing a climate crisis, we may someday spray sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere to form a cloud that cools the Earth, but suddenly stopping the spraying would have a severe global impact on...

View Article

NASA GOLD Mission to image Earth's interface to space

On Jan. 25, 2018, NASA launches Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD, a hosted payload aboard SES-14, a commercial communications satellite. GOLD will investigate the dynamic...

View Article



NASA mission launched; will revolutionize our understanding of space weather

NASA's first mission to provide unprecedented measurements of, and changes in, the temperature and composition of Earth's upper atmosphere launched at 5:20 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 25, from the Guiana...

View Article
Browsing latest articles
Browse All 136 View Live




Latest Images