Scientists with NASA’s Juno mission say they have detected sprites or elves – electrical phenomena above thunderstorms on Earth – in the clouds of Jupiter for the first time. Unlike the red-colored earthly ones however, the Jovian ones are blue. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sprites-or-elves-in-jupiters-atmosphere-lightning-juno…
Tag: atmospheres
Astronomers enlist AI in the search for ‘lethal’ baby star eruptions
Young stars—just like young humans—are prone to temper flares. But star flares can incinerate everything around them, including the atmospheres of nearby planets starting to form. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-10-astronomers-ai-lethal-baby-star.html…
Super-Earth and sub-Neptune found orbiting a red dwarf star
Astronomers using a telescope in Mexico have found two more exoplanets – a super-Earth and a sub-Neptune – orbiting a red dwarf star 120 light-years from Earth. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/super-earth-sub-neptune-orbiting-red-dwarf-star-toi-1266…
Super-Earth exoplanets often have giant ‘Jupiter’ bodyguards
Planetary systems with both super-Earths and Jupiter-type planets may be common, according to a new study. As in our own solar system, the giant planets would act as “bodyguards” protecting the smaller planets from asteroid impacts. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/super-earth-exoplanet-giant-jupiter-bodyguard…
Metal-poor globular cluster forces astronomers to rethink theories
The discovery of the most metal-poor globular cluster recorded to date has forced scientists to rethink how both galaxies and globular clusters form. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/metal-poor-globular-cluster-ext8-found-in-andromeda-galaxy…
Astronomers identify 24 possible superhabitable worlds
Are there worlds out there – orbiting distant stars – even better suited for life than Earth? Might they be older, larger, warmer, wetter and with longer-living stars? Now astronomers have identified 24 possible superhabitable worlds. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/superhabitable-exoplanets-better-suited-for-life-than-earth…
Simulations reveal that rocky super-Earths with thin atmospheres are often protected by a Jupiter-like planet
An international group of astronomers, led by Martin Schlecker of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, has found that the arrangement of rocky, gaseous and icy planets in planetary systems is apparently not random and depends on only a few initial conditions. The study, which will appear in the scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, is based on a new simulation that…
Detailed new image of famous stellar nursery
Gorgeous, detailed image of the Carina Nebula, a star nursery approximately 8,500 light-years away, as observed with the Gemini South telescope in Chile. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/carina-nebula-stellar-nursery-gemini-observatory-detailed-image…
Searching for habitable exoplanets? Look for phosphorus
Scientists develop a new way to search for potentially habitable exoplanets by measuring the amount of phosphorus in their stars. Such planets should also have abundant phosphorus – necessary for life on Earth – increasing the chances for life. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/phosphorus-in-stars-and-biomarker-habitable-exoplanets…
Water on exoplanet cloud tops could be found with hi-tech instrumentation
University of Warwick astronomers have shown that water vapor can potentially be detected in the atmospheres of exoplanets by peering literally over the tops of their impenetrable clouds. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-09-exoplanet-cloud-tops-hi-tech-instrumentation.html…