Tag Archives: Atmosphere

A small, cool star 40 light-years away has a planet that just might hold on to an atmosphere. Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to watch that world, TRAPPIST-1e, pass in front of its star four times and extract the planet’s faint atmospheric fingerprint. A new paper reports those observations and what they can – and cannot – …

Science advances through data that don’t fit our current understanding. At least that was Thomas Kuhn’s theory in his famous On the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. So scientists should welcome new data that challenges their understanding of how the universe works. A recent paper, available in pre-print on arXiv, using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) might just …

A colossal butterfly-shaped coronal hole has opened in the sun’s atmosphere and is currently spewing a fast-moving stream of solar wind toward Earth that could trigger a moderate geomagnetic storm and dazzling auroras this weekend. The high-speed solar wind from this striking feature, spanning some 310,000 miles (500,000 kilometers) across, is expected to reach Earth around Sept. 14. Space weather …

A rocky, Earth-size planet located in our Milky Way galaxy may have an atmosphere around it, according to new research, raising the possibility that it could also have liquid water on its surface and could therefore support life. In two separate papers published Monday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers zeroed in on the TRAPPIST-1 system, which consists of seven …

Michigan State’s win, Spartan Stadium night atmosphere vs. Boston College resonate with recruits who visited  247Sports Missed 2-point attempt proves costly as Boston College football loses at Michigan State in double overtime  The Boston Globe Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State football’s 42-40 double-overtime win over Boston College  Lansing State Journal Michigan State 42-40 Boston College (Sep 6, 2025) Game Recap  ESPN Gamethread: …

Self-lofting devices propelled by sunlight have been tested for the first time in near-vacuum conditions akin to those in Earth’s upper atmosphere, paving the way for a revolution in atmospheric science. The tiny, lightweight membranes — which are made of aluminum oxide and a layer of chromium — take advantage of a phenomenon known as photophoresis, which occurs when one …

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has delivered its closest and most detailed view yet of the Sun’s atmosphere, revealing the chaotic origins of the solar wind and space weather events that ripple across the solar system. The findings, based on a historic flyby in December 2024, reported by SciTechDaily, are reshaping scientists’ understanding of how the Sun’s activity can disrupt satellites, …

A study analyzing data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has uncovered evidence of a “helicity barrier” in the Sun’s atmosphere. In 2018, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe on a trajectory that would eventually have it dive into the Sun’s atmosphere (corona), getting seven times closer to our host star than any other spacecraft so far. In June 2025, the …

NASA had a special Christmas gift last year. On December 24, the Parker Solar Probe reached the closest it will ever get to the Sun. As it flew just 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) from its surface, it snapped a picture of the solar wind, the stream of particles that is released from the Sun, which can travel at …

A groundbreaking global study, recently published in Nature, reveals surprising findings about the state of ancient carbon storage and its impact on the atmosphere. For decades, scientists have assumed that carbon trapped deep in soils and rocks, often for thousands or even millions of years, was securely contained, unaffected by the forces of nature and human activity. However, a new …