atmosphere, in addition to the carbon dioxide. The gives the planet a similar composition to Saturn's, although it has no detectable rings.The team was also surprised to detect sulfur dioxide, which had appeared as a mysterious bump in early observation data. Its presence suggests that a photochemical reaction is taking place in the atmosphere as light from the star hits it, in a similar way to how the Sun produces ozone in Earth's atmosphere. In WASP-39b's case, light from its star, which is slightly smaller than the Sun, splits water in its atmosphere into hydrogen and hydroxide, which reacts with hydrogen sulfide to produce sulfur dioxide."These spectra are just exquisite in their detail, and reveal an additional way that the star affects the planet's atmospheric composition, through photochemistry," says Victoria Meadows, an astronomer at the University of Washington in Seattle."Photochemistry, because it is such an important process here on Earth, is probably an important process on other potentially habitable planets," says Jacob Bean, an astronomer at the University of Chicago in Illinois and the observation team's co-leader. Until now, "we've only been able to test our understanding of photochemistry in our Solar System. But planets around other stars give us access to completely different physical conditions.
In just five months, Russia's war on Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and ruptured global geopolitics and economics. It is marking science, too. The heaviest impacts are in Ukraine, where researchers have seen their institutions bombed and are facing upheaval and threats to their livelihoods. In Russia, scientists are contending with boycotts and sanctions in response to their country's actions. More widely, the crisis has created economic and political rifts that have already affected research in physics, space, climate science, food security and energy. A prolonged conflict could foment a significant realignment of scientific-collaboration patterns.Here are seven ways in which the war is already affecting research, and could change it for years or decades to come.
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