Venus’ extreme surface heat drives swirling winds in upper atmosphere, study finds

The surface of Venus, as imaged by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft. (Image credit: NASA/JPL) Scientists have shown how the swirling winds and searing heat on Venus work together in a revealing new study. The surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead with temperatures averaging 872 degrees Fahrenheit (467 degrees Celsius). This extreme heat is … Read more

This Extremely Extreme Exoplanet Has Metal Vapor Clouds And Rains Liquid Jewels

A giant exoplanet 855 light-years away is so extreme, it has clouds of vaporized metals and rains liquid rubies and sapphires. That’s the conclusion astronomers have reached after probing its atmosphere – the most detailed such analysis to date, revealing for the first time the conditions and dynamics of the exoplanet’s permanent night side.   … Read more

Extreme ‘Megadrought’ Gripping The US Is Like Nothing Seen in 1,200 Years

The megadrought that has parched the southwestern United States and parts of Mexico over the last two decades is the worst to hit the region in at least 1,200 years, researchers said Monday.   Human-caused global heating accounts for more than 40 percent of the dry spell’s intensity, they reported in the journal Nature Climate … Read more

The Most Extreme ‘Rogue Wave’ on Record Was Just Confirmed in The North Pacific

In November of 2020, a freak wave came out of the blue, lifting a lonesome buoy off the coast of British Columbia 17.6 meters high (58 feet). The four-story wall of water has now been confirmed as the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded.   Such an exceptional event is thought to occur only once … Read more

Extreme Heat Becomes New Normal for Oceans

Oceans are heating up at breakneck speed, and the warming waters are threatening marine animals all over the world. That’s the alarming takeaway from a pair of new studies on marine warming published this week in the journal PLOS Climate. The first study looks back in time to find out how the oceans have changed since the Industrial … Read more

Meteorite Fragment Reveals an Extreme Asteroid Impact Hidden in Mars’ Ancient Past

Evidence for an intense asteroid impact on Mars has been found in a Martian meteorite, which could alter the timeline for when the red planet might have been habitable. In a famous meteorite named NWA 7034, or ‘Black Beauty’, scientists discovered a shocked crystal of the mineral zircon, showing a feature only seen on Earth … Read more

Ocean warming: Extreme marine heatwaves are the new normal

Since 2014, more than half of the ocean surface across the globe has recorded temperatures considered extreme compared with a historical average Environment 1 February 2022 By Adam Vaughan Map of the northern Pacific Ocean for May 2015, with red, pink and yellow colours indicating sea surface temperatures up to 3°C higher than average NASA … Read more

The Atmosphere of This Extreme Exoplanet Has an Intriguing Similarity to Earth

Astronomers have just peered into the atmosphere of one of the most extreme exoplanets ever discovered. Although it’s absolutely not habitable (at least as we understand it), the exoplanet WASP-189b is the first in which scientists have been able to probe distinct atmospheric layers, each with their own chemical compositions and characteristics.   “In the … Read more

Astrobiology: Bacteria can survive extreme conditions that may have existed in ancient Mars lakes

Microorganisms have adapted to one of the harshest environments on Earth, a sulphurous and acidic lake that is considered an analogue to ancient lakes on Mars Space 28 January 2022 By Chen Ly A volcanic crater in Costa Rica with an extremely harsh lake known as Laguna Caliente Justin Wang Bacteria have adapted to survive … Read more

Climate Change Could Open Up ‘Rivers in The Sky’ Over East Asia

We know that the climate crisis is already having a profound effect on global weather systems, altering temperatures, rainfall, wind patterns, and more – and a new study predicts likely deluges over the mountainous parts of East Asia in the future.   The pouring rain will be brought on by atmospheric rivers, scientists predict. These … Read more