Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




EXO WORLDS
Hubble Finds a Cobalt Blue Planet
by Staff Writers
Baltimore MD (SPX) Jul 12, 2013


This artist's concept shows exoplanet HD 189733b orbiting its yellow-orange star, HD 189733. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope measured the actual visible-light color of the planet, which is deep blue. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI). For a larger version of this image please go here.

Astronomers working with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have deduced the actual color of a planet orbiting another star 63 light-years away. The planet is HD 189733b, one of the closest exoplanets that can be seen crossing the face of its star, and its color is cobalt blue.

If seen directly, this planet would look like a deep blue dot, reminiscent of Earth's color as seen from space. Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph measured changes in the color of light from the planet before, during and after a pass behind its star.

There was a small drop in light and a slight change in the color of the light.

"We saw the light becoming less bright in the blue but not in the green or red. Light was missing in the blue but not in the red when it was hidden," said research team member Frederic Pont of the University of Exeter in South West England.

"This means that the object that disappeared was blue." Earlier observations have reported evidence for scattering of blue light on the planet. The latest Hubble observation confirms the evidence.

Although the planet resembles Earth in terms of color, it is not an Earth-like world.

On this turbulent alien world, the daytime temperature is nearly 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and it possibly rains glass -- sideways -- in howling, 4,500-mph winds.

The cobalt blue color comes not from the reflection of a tropical ocean as it does on Earth, but rather a hazy, blow-torched atmosphere containing high clouds laced with silicate particles. Silicates condensing in the heat could form very small drops of glass that scatter blue light more than red light.

Hubble and other observatories have made intensive studies of HD 189733b and found its atmosphere to be changeable and exotic.

HD 189733b is among a bizarre class of planets called hot Jupiters, which orbit precariously close to their parent stars.

HD 189733b was discovered in 2005. It is only 2.9 million miles from its parent star, so close that it is gravitationally locked. One side always faces the star and the other side is always dark.

In 2007, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope measured the infrared light, or heat, from the planet, leading to one of the first temperature maps for an exoplanet. The map shows day side and night side temperatures on HD 189733b differ by about 500 degrees Fahrenheit. This should cause fierce winds to roar from the day side to the night side.

.


Related Links
Hubble Space Telescope
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science
Life Beyond Earth






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








EXO WORLDS
Gaps in dust around stars may not indicate planets as many believe
Pasadena, Calif. (UPI) Jul 10, 2013
Gaps in dusty disks around young stars, thought by many astronomers to be indicative of planet formation, can occur without planets, U.S. scientists say. Wladimir Lyra at the California Institute of Technology and Marc Kuchner of NASA say interactions between dust and gas can produce some of the key patterns previously attributed to planets. Writing in the journal Nature, they sa ... read more


EXO WORLDS
Scientist says Earth may once have been orbited by two moons

Dust hazard for Moon missions: scientists

NASA Seeks Information on Commercial Robotic Lunar Lander Capabilities

Orbiting astronaut controls robot on Earth, testing feasibility of CU-Boulder project on far side of the moon

EXO WORLDS
Opportunity Making Progress Toward Solander Point

Mars Rover Curiosity Begins Trek Toward Mount Sharp

Science Team Outlines Goals for NASA's 2020 Mars Rover

Is Mars mission Indian rocket's silver jubilee flight?

EXO WORLDS
NASA Selects Seven Projects for 2014 X-Hab Innovation Challenge

Space seeds could "benefit" traditional Chinese medicines

Kennedy Facilities Key to NASA's Transition

Voyager 1 Explores Final Frontier Of Our Solar Bubble

EXO WORLDS
China's space tracking ship Yuanwang-5 berths at Jakarta for replenishment

China plans to launch Tiangong-2 space lab around 2015

Twilight for Tiangong

China calls for international cooperation in manned space program

EXO WORLDS
Station Astronauts Complete First of Two July Spacewalks

Russia to go ahead with space freighter launch

ISS technology to 'hear' potential leaks

Russian cosmonauts conduct space station tasks in spacewalk

EXO WORLDS
Special group to be set up for inspecting production of Proton-M carrier rockets

Two Rockets Launched From Wallops

Specialists unrelated to Khrunichev to check Proton-M rocket production

Proton Rocket to Stay in Demand Despite Accidents

EXO WORLDS
Hubble Finds a Cobalt Blue Planet

Gaps in dust around stars may not indicate planets as many believe

Hubble Telescope reveals variation between hot extrasolar planet atmospheres

UCSB Astronomer Uncovers The Hidden Identity Of An Exoplanet

EXO WORLDS
Bioengineers Use Adhesion to Combine Silicones and Organic Materials

NASA's OPALS to Beam Data From Space Via Laser

Experts row over 'earliest' Chinese inscriptions find

Designer droplets open new possibilities




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement