Gas Giant

  • Exoplanets are a constant source of surprise and wonder, and now astronomers have noticed something strange about a gas giant called WASP-19b. In the upper atmosphere of this “hot Jupiter” sits a layer of titanium oxide, which has flipped the usual atmospheric temperature structure on its head.
  • NASA's Cassini spacecraft is now less than 18 days from its fateful encounter with Saturn's atmosphere, which will mark a dramatic end to one of the most successful and inspiring planetary exploration missions to date. NASA has now laid out the final week of Cassini's historic mission.
  • ​A massive storm bigger than the Earth has been raging for centuries on Jupiter, and now Juno is swooping in for a closer look. It will come within a few thousand miles of the Great Red Spot, probing the storm to hopefully reveal some of its mysteries, and snap some stunning photos in the process.
  • Habitability is one of the main things we look for in exoplanets, but those that are completely and utterly uninhabitable still have plenty to teach us. NASA has just found a planet that we’re going to crown Least Likely To Host Life: KELT-9b, a blistering gas giant that’s hotter than most stars.
  • ​​NASA has released a movie sequence created from raw images captured by the Cassini spacecraft as the probe plunged from high above Saturn’s north pole, down towards the “big empty” separating the planet’s upper atmosphere and iconic ring system.
  • If the Stay Puft marshmallow man from Ghostbusters were a planet, it would probably be the newly discovered super gas giant, KELT 11b. The highly inflated planet is 40 percent larger than Jupiter, despite being only a fifth as massive as the largest planet in our solar system.
  • NASA has released some of the highest resolution images ever obtained of Saturn’s A & B rings. The images, which were taken as Cassini made a close-proximity dive past Saturn’s rings, display the icy matter of the gas giant’s adornment manipulated by the gravity of its moons.
  • Russian chemists have discovered that some exotic compounds may be formed in high pressure environments like those found inside Uranus, Neptune and other gas giant planets.