c.im is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
C.IM is a general, mainly English-speaking Mastodon instance.

Server stats:

2.9K
active users

#atmosphere

18 posts14 participants1 post today

All sorts of #toxic materials are released into the #atmosphere when buildings and their contents #burn. It's why one sees urban #firefighters donning breathing apparatus. #Wildlands adjacent to the Los Angeles basin also contain #mercury and #lead in #soil and litter layers, deposited over many years from #air #pollution generated by vehicles and industries. #Wildfires often emit these heavy metals.

nytimes.com/2025/03/28/well/la

The New York Times · L.A. Firefighters Who Fought Blazes Show Elevated Mercury and Lead LevelsBy Maggie Astor

The common mini-Neptunes typically form with a #hydrogen #atmosphere, resulting in conditions where #hydrogen and the #planet’s molten interior interact for millions to billions of years.

But the temperatures and pressures involved are so extreme that laboratory experiments to study them are nearly impossible.

Water and hydrogen would begin to separate deep within the atmosphere leading to rainfall deep inside the planet’s atmosphere as heavier water sinks.

astrobiology.com/2025/03/atmos

Astrobiology · Atmospheres Of New Planets Might Have Unexpected Mixtures Of Hydrogen And Water - AstrobiologyRecent studies show that the most common type of planets in our galaxy typically form with a hydrogen atmosphere

3D map of #exoplanet #atmosphere shows wacky climate
#Astronomers have mapped the 3D structure of the layered atmosphere of one such ultra-hot #Jupiter-size exoplanet, revealing powerful winds that create intricate #weather patterns across that atmosphere.
"This planet’s atmosphere behaves in ways that challenge our understanding of how weather works."
#Astronomy and #Astrophysics reported on unexpected identification of #titanium in the exoplanet's atmosphere as well.
arstechnica.com/science/2025/0

The 3D structure of the atmosphere of the exoplanet Tylos
Ars Technica · 3D map of exoplanet atmosphere shows wacky climateBy Jennifer Ouellette
View from my driveway tonight. With these auroral bands, you have a maximum level of energy that is stored in the earths magnetic field. When these maximum levels are reached, it creates a breakup, or otherwise known as a corona. Where the magnetic bands swirl and break apart, releasing the concentrated energy into a more broad, mist like auroral haze.
But for those few minutes of eye watering wonder, it’s quite a good time.


#aurora #northernlights #spaceweather #atmosphere #auroraborealis #winter #stars #astrophotography #homesweethome #backyard

The upcoming extremely large telescopes will provide the first opportunity to search for signs of #habitability and #life on non-transiting #terrestrial #exoplanets.

For the most accessible nearby target, #Proxima Centauri b, we may be able to rule out a sub-Neptune #atmosphere in as little as a single hour of observing, and some #biosignature disequilibrium pairs may be accessible in 10 hours.

#astronomy #astrobiology
arxiv.org/abs/2503.08592

arXiv logo
arXiv.orgThere's more to life in reflected light: Simulating the detectability of a range of molecules for high-contrast, high-resolution observations of non-transiting terrestrial exoplanetsThe upcoming extremely large telescopes will provide the first opportunity to search for signs of habitability and life on non-transiting terrestrial exoplanets using high-contrast, high-resolution instrumentation. However, the suite of atmospheric gases in terrestrial exoplanet environments that are accessible to ground-based reflected light observations has not been thoroughly explored. In this work, we use an upgraded Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) detectability pipeline to simulate the detectability of gases that can serve as habitability markers, potential biosignatures, and false positive discriminants in the atmospheres of Earth-sized and sub-Neptune planets. We calculate molecular detectability for five photochemically self-consistent atmosphere types, including the modern and Archean Earth, uninhabited biosignature ``false positive'' environments, and a sub-Neptune, over a grid of observational configurations for non-transiting targets within 10pc of Earth. For the most accessible nearby target, Proxima Centauri b, our results suggest that we may be able to rule out a sub-Neptune atmosphere in as little as a single hour of observing, and two biosignature disequilibrium pairs (O$_2$/CH$_4$ and CO$_2$/CH$_4$) may be accessible in $\sim 10$ hours for the most optimistic scenario. It may also be possible to discriminate uninhabited worlds, and rule out biosignature false positives by identifying contextual indicators (CO and H$_2$O) of abiotic O$_2$ and/or CH$_4$ buildup on similar timescales. In the near term, ELT reflected light observations will likely allow us to characterize multiple nearby terrestrial atmospheres, and ultimately search for signs of habitability and life.

A couple of abstracts relevant to the space environment from the upcoming European Geosciences Union (Vienna, 27 April–2 May 2025):

“Defining the environmental impacts of satellite megaconstellation missions in a rapidly growing space sector” meetingorganizer.copernicus.or

“Survey of the estimated mass of ablated material and intact debris from ‘end-of-life’ LEO spacecraft entering the atmosphere” meetingorganizer.copernicus.or

meetingorganizer.copernicus.orgAbstract EGU25-17301