Exoplanetary Atmospheres and How to Understand Them

Six stories that examine atmospheres, both here on Earth and on exoplanets.

IMAGE: The early atmospheres of rocky planets are thought to form mostly from gases released from the surface of the planet as a result of the intense heating during the accretion of planetary building blocks and later volcanic activity early in the planet’s development. CREDIT: Dan Durda/Southwest Research Institute

Let’s start with Earth, where a team of scientists from UC Santa Cruz baked meteorites at 1200 degrees Celsius and then sampled the resulting gases produced using a mass spectrometer. Overall, water was predominant, followed by large amounts of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and then smaller…