First Posted: Sep 25, 2014 24:50 EDT
(Foto:Wikimedia Commons / NASA)
Astronomers have found clear skies and water vapor in a small gas planet outside our Solar System, using three of the most prominent planet telescopes: Hubble, Spitzer and Kepler.
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The planet, HAT-P-11b, is categorized as an exo-Neptune – or Neptune-sized planet in another system – orbiting the HAT-P-11 star, which is located 120 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus.
The recently announced discovery is the smallest planet in which the molecules were detected.
“This discovery is a significant milestone on the path to eventually analyze the atmospheric composition of small rocky planets like Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, assistant administrator Mission Directorate at NASA, in a press release. “This achievement is only possible today with the combined capabilities of these unique and powerful observatories.”
Typically, clouds in the atmosphere of a planet can block the detection of molecules that can provide vital information composition and history of a planet.
“When astronomers observe with telescopes at night, say ‘clear skies’ to ask for good luck,” said Jonathan Fraine, University of Maryland, College Park, lead author a new study of exo-Neptune appears in the scientific journal Nature.
“In this case, we find clear skies on a distant planet,” he said. “That’s good luck for us because it means no clouds blocked our view of the water molecules.”
The new research says that HAT-P-11b, which completes an orbit of its star every five days, is a warm planet with a rocky core and gas atmosphere.
One of the biggest challenges in analyzing the atmospheres of planet as this is its size, NASA said in a statement. “The large planets like Jupiter are easier to see for its impressive size and relatively inflated atmospheres. Indeed, researchers have already detected water vapor in the atmospheres of these planets. Handful of small planet observed previously been harder probe partially because they all look cloudy. “
In the study, astronomers sought to examine the atmosphere of HAT-P-11b, not knowing if the weather could be cloudy or not.
The team used the Hubble telescope on a technique called transmission spectroscopy, where a planet is an observer while crossing in front of their parent star, the light which filters through the planet’s atmosphere.
In this observation, if the molecules of water vapor are present, they absorb some of the light from the stars, unique signatures left behind in the light reaching the telescope.
Hubble could detect water vapor in Hat- P-11b.
The scientists then turned to Kepler, which was aimed at an area of sky for years, and Spitzer to look for evidence that the steam was not tired by star points, coldest pieces in the faces of stars that may contain water vapor -. they could be mistaken as coming from one of the planets of the star
So, by combining information from visible light with Spitzer observations taken in infrared, the researchers were able to discover that the star points of the star HAT-P-11 are too hot to produce steam.
“We think the exo-Neptunes may have different compositions that reflect the stories of his training, “said study co-author Heather Knutson California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “Now, with data like this, you may start to spin a narrative of the origin of these distant worlds.”
The new findings could help theorists develop new models to explain the composition and origins of HAT-P . 11b in similar worlds
Astronomers plan to examine more exo-Neptunes in the future, hoping to apply the same method to super-Earths -. massive rocky cousins of our home with up to ten times the mass
We want to expand our knowledge to a diverse range of exoplanets, “said Drake Deming, a co-author of the study also of the University of Maryland.” We are working on the list of hot Jupiters to exo-Neptunes. ” ..
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