Related papers: Haze Formation on Triton
Recognizing whether a planet can support life is a primary goal of future exoplanet spectral characterization missions, but past research on habitability assessment has largely ignored the vastly different conditions that have existed in…
The standard treatment of cooling in Cold Dark Matter halos assumes that all of the gas within a ``cooling radius'' cools and contracts monolithically to fuel galaxy formation. Here we take into account the expectation that the hot gas in…
We model gas cooling in high-resolution N-body simulations in order to investigate the formation of the first generation of stars. We follow a region of a LCDM universe especially selected to contain a rich cluster by the present day. The…
With the discovery of ever smaller and colder exoplanets, terrestrial worlds with hazy atmospheres must be increasingly considered. Our Solar System's Titan is a prototypical hazy planet, whose atmosphere may be representative of a large…
Ocean worlds, or icy bodies in the outer solar system that have or once had subsurface liquid water oceans, are among the most compelling topics of astrobiology. Typically, confirming the existence of a subsurface ocean requires close…
We study the properties of gas in and around 10^12 solar mass halos at z=2 using a suite of high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamic 'zoom' simulations. We quantify the thermal and dynamical structure of these gaseous reservoirs in terms…
The upper haze (UH) of Venus is variable on the order of days and it is populated by two particle modes. We use a 1D microphysics and vertical transport model based on the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres to evaluate…
We present an analysis of the VIMS solar occultations dataset, which allows us to extract vertically resolved information on the characteristics of Titan's atmosphere between 100-700 km with a characteristic vertical resolution of 10 km.…
Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn, has a thick atmosphere which presents similarities with the one thought to be on Earth at its beginning. The study of Titan s photochemical haze is thus a precious tool in gaining knowledge of the…
We present the results of an investigation to determine the longitudinal (zonal) distributions and temporal evolution of ices on the surface of Triton. Between 2002 and 2014, we obtained 63 nights of near-infrared (0.67-2.55 $\mu$m) spectra…
Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, has a thick atmosphere dominated by nitrogen and methane. The dense orange-brown smog hiding the satellite's surface is produced by photochemical reactions of methane, nitrogen and their dissociation…
The Haze is an excess of microwave intensity emission surrounding the Galactic centre. It is spatially correlated with the $\gamma$-ray Fermi bubbles, and with the S-PASS radio polarization plumes, suggesting a possible common provenance.…
Context - Around the year 2000, Triton's south pole experienced an extreme summer solstice that occurs every about 650 years, when the subsolar latitude reached about 50{\deg}. Bracketing this epoch, a few occultations probed Triton's…
A combination band due to a mechanism whereby a photon excites two or more vibrational modes ({\it e.g.} a bend and a stretch) of an individual molecule is commonly seen in laboratory and astronomical spectroscopy. Here, we present evidence…
We present results from 3D simulations of the Archean Earth including a prescribed (non-interactive) spherical haze generated through a 1D photochemical model. Our simulations suggest that a thin haze layer, formed when CH4/CO2 = 0.1, leads…
Although all-sky surveys have led to the discovery of dozens of young planets, little is known about their atmospheres. Here, we present multi-wavelength transit data for the super Neptune-sized exoplanet, K2-33b -- the youngest (~10 Myr)…
Measurements of trace-gases in planetary atmospheres help us explore chemical conditions different to those on Earth. Our nearest neighbor, Venus, has cloud decks that are temperate but hyper-acidic. We report the apparent presence of…
Transit spectroscopy is a key tool for exoplanet atmospheric characterization. However, transit spectrum observations can be limited by aerosol extinction when gas opacities are weak. The ultraviolet wavelength range contains a variety of…
Observations of Neptune, made in 2018 using the new Narrow Field Adaptive Optics mode of the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) from 0.48 - 0.93 micron, are analysed here to determine the…
Neptune's largest satellite, Triton, is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic bodies in the solar system. Among its numerous interesting traits, Triton appears to have far fewer craters than would be expected if its surface was…