23 March 2018
ESA selects ARIEL to look closely at exoplanets
... scan the skies during its 4-year mission to observe 1000 exoplanets orbiting distant stars, to make the first large-scale survey of the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres. Data collected from the mission should help enable scientists answer...
26 April 2016
Sulphur chemistry could be the key to clouds on many exoplanets
... with air pollution from vehicular emission (think Los Angeles, Dehli and Beijing). Past studies of exoplanet atmosphere’s have concentrated on hydrocarbons and nitriles as the main compound in photochemical hazes, especially on warm sub-Neptune...
12 May 2017
Warm Neptune with primitive atmosphere discovered
... the planet is not considered a water world. This analysis is the best measurement of water to date on an exoplanet of this size. This primitive atmosphere also suggests that the planet most likely formed later in its solar system development...
March 2017
Twinkle - a mission to unravel the story of planets in our galaxy
...on planets orbiting very bright stars, a small telescope can do wonders. A bespoke space mission for characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres would have several advantages: experience with Hubble and Spitzer indicates that the instrument’s stability...
01 September 2017
TRAPPIST-1 planets could contain substantial amounts of water
... and in the case of a water molecule, once it is broken up, the very light hydrogen atoms can escape the exoplanets’ atmosphere. Instruments such as the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) onboard Hubble can then be used to detect the...
