Discovered water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet sized … – The Reason

American scientists have first detected water vapor in the atmosphere of a Neptune-sized exoplanet, a finding published today in the journal “Nature” that enable progress towards the identification of worlds beyond our solar system with conditions similar to those on Earth. To date, only one had managed to analyze the atmospheric composition of large gaseous, Jupiter-like exoplanets, whereas now we have measured the presence of water in a body with about four times the Earth radius.

The researcher at the University of Maryland Fraine Jonathan and his colleagues used a technique called transmission spectrometry for atmospheric composition of the planet HAT-P-11b, a distance of about 122 light years. The extrasolar planet in the constellation Cygnus, orbits the star HAT-P-11. It is the smallest planet and cold that have been detected so far signs of the presence of water, one of the essential elements that may develop life.

From images obtained by telescopes Hubble and Spitzer, scientists have found a planet first medium size in which a thick layer of clouds does not prevent measure the composition of its atmosphere. In most cases, dense clouds composed prevent all kinds of elements to analyze the deeper layers of the atmosphere of that class of bodies. That same obstacle was a problem for decades to study the solar system planets like Jupiter, covered with stratified ammonia clouds, and Venus, where thick clouds of sulfuric acid stretch.

Given the impossibility of sending space probes to study distant exoplanets, scientists try to establish atmospheric composition information from the electromagnetic spectrum that reaches the Earth. Until now, scientists had unsuccessfully tried to analyze the atmosphere of extrasolar planets four others of a similar or smaller size to Neptune.

In the case of HAT-P-11b, however, have come to appreciate clear marks in the spectrum reveals the presence of water vapor molecules and hydrogen and trace amounts of heavy atoms. The findings shed keys to understanding the formation and evolution of this class of exoplanets, notes the study of “Nature”.