Topic description and stories

View of surface of Venus

Researchers deal a blow to theory that Venus once had liquid water on its surface

02 Dec 2024

A team of astronomers has found that Venus has never been habitable, despite decades of speculation that our closest planetary neighbour was once...

Read more
Researcher holding up an ice sample

Historic fires trapped in Antarctic ice yield key information for climate models

09 Aug 2024

Pollutants preserved in Antarctic ice document historic fires in the Southern Hemisphere, offering a glimpse at how humans have impacted the...

Read more
Sunrise over Venus

Mysterious missing component in the clouds of Venus revealed

09 Jan 2024

Researchers may have identified the missing component in the chemistry of the Venusian clouds that would explain their colour and 'splotchiness' in...

Read more
Polar Stratospheric Clouds, also called mother of pearl clouds

Why do climate models underestimate polar warming? ‘Invisible clouds’ could be the answer

08 Nov 2023

Stratospheric clouds over the Arctic may explain the differences seen between the polar warming calculated by climate models and actual recordings...

Read more
Volcano erupting near El Paso, La Palma, Spain

Effect of volcanic eruptions significantly underestimated in climate projections

23 Jun 2023

Researchers have found that the cooling effect that volcanic eruptions have on Earth's surface temperature is likely underestimated by a factor of...

Read more
View of Earth from 40,000 feet

Scientists develop new method to assess ozone layer recovery

24 Aug 2022

Researchers have developed a new method for assessing the impacts of ozone-destroying substances that threaten the recovery of the ozone layer.

Read more
Venus, from Mariner 10

No signs (yet) of life on Venus

14 Jun 2022

̽»¨Ö±²¥unusual behaviour of sulphur in Venus’ atmosphere cannot be explained by an ‘aerial’ form of extra-terrestrial life, according to a new study.

Read more

Women in STEM: Dr Maria Russo

12 Mar 2020

Dr Maria Russo is a Research Associate in the Department of Chemistry, where she studies the physical and chemical processes at work in the...

Read more
KÄ«lauea eruption, 2018

Size matters: if you are a bubble of volcanic gas

06 Aug 2018

̽»¨Ö±²¥chemical composition of gases emitted from volcanoes – which are used to monitor changes in volcanic activity – can change depending on the size...

Read more
An artist's impression showing the exoplanet WASP-19b

Inferno world with titanium skies

13 Sep 2017

An international team of astronomers has detected titanium oxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time. ̽»¨Ö±²¥results , reported in the...

Read more