Related papers: Recovering Phosphine in Venus' Atmosphere from SOF…
Due to the detection of phosphine PH3 in the Solar System gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, PH3 has long been suggested to be detectable in exosolar substellar atmospheres too. However, to date, a direct detection of phosphine has proven to be…
The Venusian atmosphere is in a state of superrotation where prevailing westward winds move much faster than the planet's rotation. Venus is covered with thick clouds that extend from about 45 to 70 km altitude, but thermal radiation…
In our solar system, the densely cloud-covered atmosphere of Venus stands out as an example of how polarimetry can be used to gain information on cloud composition and particle mean radius. With current interest running high on discovering…
Venus exhibits strong and changing contrasts at ultraviolet wavelengths apparently related to the clouds and the dynamics in the cloud layer, but to date their origin continues to be unknown. We investigate the nature of the UV contrasts…
The Venusian atmosphere is covered by clouds with super-rotating winds whose accelerating mechanism is still not well understood. The fastest winds, occurring at the cloud tops ($\sim$70 km height), have been studied for decades thanks to…
A self-consistent two-dimensional model is proposed to account for the transient mesospheric nighttime optical emissions associated to possible intra-cloud (IC) lightning occurring in the Venusian troposphere. The model calculates the…
The longevity of Cassini's exploration of Saturn's atmosphere (a third of a Saturnian year) means that we have been able to track the seasonal evolution of atmospheric temperatures, chemistry and cloud opacity over almost every season, from…
What constitutes a habitable planet is a frontier to be explored and requires pushing the boundaries of our terracentric viewpoint for what we deem to be a habitable environment. Despite Venus' 700 K surface temperature being too hot for…
Scientists have long speculated about the potential habitability of Venus, not at the 700K surface, but in the cloud layers located at 48-60 km altitudes, where temperatures match those found on Earth's surface. However, the prevailing…
Ozone is a potential biosignature and disambuguator between Earth-like and Venus-like exoplanets due to its association on Earth with photosynthetically produced oxygen (O$_2$). However, the existence of ozone in Venus's observable…
Present-day Venus is an inhospitable place with surface temperatures approaching 750K and an atmosphere over 90 times as thick as present day Earth's. Billions of years ago the picture may have been very different. We have created a suite…
High spectral resolution observations of Venus were obtained with the TEXES instrument at NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility. These observations focus on a CO$_2$ absorption feature at 791.4 cm$^{-1}$ as the shape of this absorption feature…
We explore the dominant modes of variability in the observed albedo at the cloud tops of Venus using the Akatsuki UVI 283-nm and 365-nm observations, which are sensitive to SO2 and unknown UV absorber distributions respectively, over the…
Sulfur dioxide is a radiatively and chemically important trace gas in the atmosphere of Venus and its abundance at the cloud-tops has been observed to vary on interannual to decadal timescales. This variability is thought to come from…
The field of exoplanetary science has seen a dramatic improvement in sensitivity to terrestrial planets over recent years. Such discoveries have been a key feature of results from the {\it Kepler} mission which utilizes the transit method…
On January 10 and 13, 2001, Venus was observed for the first time with an X-ray astronomy satellite. The observation, performed with the ACIS-I and LETG/ACIS-S instruments on Chandra, yielded data of high spatial, spectral, and temporal…
A key item of interest for planetary scientists and astronomers is the habitable zone, or the distance from a host star where a terrestrial planet can maintain necessary temperatures in order to retain liquid water on its surface. However,…
Far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation is a driving source of photochemistry in planetary atmospheres. Proper interpretation of atmospheric observations requires a full understanding of the radiation environment that a planet is exposed to. Using…
Since 2011, the SOPHIE spectrograph has been used to search for Neptunes and super-Earths in the Northern Hemisphere. As part of this observational program, 290 radial velocity measurements of the 6.4 V magnitude star HD 158259 were…
Recent analysis of Gemini-North/NIFS H-band (1.45 - 1.8 $\mu$m) observations of Uranus, recorded in 2010, with recently updated line data has revealed the spectral signature of hydrogen sulphide (H$_2$S) in Uranus's atmosphere (Irwin et…