press release

Figure. Diagram of the proposed Venus mesospheric water cycle mechanism to sustain the observed HDO and H2O VMR and HDO/H2O ratio increase with altitude. ©Mathieux et al. Thanks to observations by the Venus Express space probe of the European Space Agency (ESA), an international research group led by Arnaud Mahiuex, a researcher at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Hiroki Karyu, a PhD student, and Assoc. Prof. Hiromu Nakagawa, at this laboratory, has discovered an unexpected increase in the abundances of two water molecule variants – H2O and HDO – and their ratio HDO/H2O in Venus’ mesosphere. The...

Figure . Conceptual diagram of the process by which formaldehyde (H2CO) is formed in the atmosphere on ancient, warm Mars and converted into the material molecules of life in the ocean (©Shungo Koyama).   A research group led by Shungo Koyama, a PhD student, and Prof. Naoki Terada in this laboratory, estimated the amount of formaldehyde produced in the ancient Martian atmosphere using a photochemical model of the atmosphere, and showed that formaldehyde was continuously produced in the warm period of ancient Mars. The results of this study suggest that sugar, a material molecule of life represented by ribose, one...