A NASA astronaut has captured photographs from a window aboard the International Space Station (ISS) of eerie, glowing red lights hanging in Earth’s atmosphere. The stunning image, taken on June 3 by NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission commander Matthew Dominick, captured the quick flash of a weather phenomenon known as “red sprite” lightning. Red sprites are … Read more
An exoplanet in its star’s habitable Goldilocks zone is now suspected of having a liquid water ocean and an atmosphere. The planet, called LHS 1140 b, is about 1.7 times the size of Earth and is located about 48 light-years away. This distant world, first discovered in 2017, now turns out to be a rocky … Read more
Artist’s impression of Smertrios. Credit: NASA. Using the CARMENES spectrograph, astronomers have found evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of a hot Saturnian exoplanet called HD 149026 b, dubbed Smertrios. The finding, reported in a research paper published on the preprint server arXivcould hold the key to a better understanding of the structure and … Read more
A hellish planet with a “hot Jupiter” relatively close to Earth would probably smell like rotten eggs if we ever made the trip there, new data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals. HD 189733 b is a gas giant located about 64 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. It orbits extremely close to … Read more
Orbital configuration of Mars Express (red) and trace gas orbiter (blue) during a typical mutual radio occultation observation, with a black and white arrow indicating the direction of radio communication between the two spacecraft. Credit: Radio science (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023RS007873 Using the repurposed equipment, a team including researchers from Imperial College London measured parts of … Read more
The closer you look at the universe, the more mysterious it seems. NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission recently revealed bizarre C- and X-shaped structures floating in the electrified layer of the ionosphere. “Who knew Earth’s upper atmosphere was like alphabet soup?” NASA wrote about the sighting on its website. The … Read more
Earth may be swimming in an ocean of dark matter, according to new theoretical research. Waves in that invisible ocean, lapping against our planet’s upper atmosphere, may generate detectable radio waves that could finally help us find this elusive part of the universe. A wealth of astrophysical and cosmological evidence points to the existence of … Read more
Diagram of H3+ production in Jupiter. Aurora H3+ emission near the magnetic poles is caused by precipitating electrons, and extreme UV radiation from the sun irradiates the day side and dominates H3+ production near the equator. No significant H3+ is expected at low latitudes on the nightside, making it an ideal DM signal area. Credit: … Read more
NASA scientists have just identified mysterious shapes flying above Earth. But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean aliens are about to strike. Using an imaging instrument called Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD), the experts discovered strange X and C shapes, appearing at surprising times in the most surprising places. The researchers found that … Read more
9 Using the joint NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) James Webb Space Telescope, a group of scientists have discovered a variety of never-before-seen features in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere. The features were found in the atmospheric region above the iconic Great Red Spot, a high-pressure area in Jupiter’s atmosphere that creates … Read more