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The flat and featureless transmission spectra of two intermediate-sized extrasolar planets, observed during the planets' passage across their host stars, shed light on the properties of their atmospheres. See Letters p.66 & p.69
It promises to be a heady year for science in culture: fans can steep in the sumptuous world of colour, unpeel the upside of failure, explore neural pathways, revisit the First World War, mend a rip in space-time, go pterosaur-spotting and traverse a mammoth-ridden nation. Daniel Cressey investigates.
An evaluation of atmospheric convective mixing and low-level clouds in climate models suggests that Earth's climate will warm more than was thought in response to increasing levels of carbon dioxide. See Article p.37
The transmission spectrum of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b is observed to be featureless at near-infrared wavelengths and its atmosphere must contain clouds to be consistent with the data.
The transmission spectrum of the Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b is shown to be featureless, implying that the planet has either a hydrogen-poor atmosphere or a high cloud layer.
The change in global mean temperature in response to a change in external forcing is highly uncertain; here differences in the simulated strength of convective mixing between the lower and middle tropical troposphere are shown to explain about half of the variance in climate sensitivity, constraining the predicted equilibrium climate sensitivity to an increase of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius.
