Hubble Telescope Detects Stratosphere on Huge Alien Planet

[Judi Lynn]

By Tereza Pultarova, Space.com Contributor | August 3, 2017 07:28am ET


A huge, superhot alien planet has a stratrosphere, like Earth does, a new study suggests.

"This result is exciting because it shows that a common trait of most of the atmospheres in our solar system — a warm stratosphere — also can be found in exoplanet atmospheres," study co-author Mark Marley, of NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, said in a statement.

"We can now compare processes in exoplanet atmospheres with the same processes that happen under different sets of conditions in our own solar system," Marley added. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

The research team, led by Thomas Evans of the University of Exeter in England, detected spectral signatures of water molecules in the atmosphere of WASP-121b, a gas giant that lies about 880 light-years from Earth. These signatures indicate that the temperature of the upper layer of the planet's atmosphere increases with the distance from the planet's surface. In the bottom layer of the atmosphere, the troposphere, the temperature decreases with altitude, study team members said.

More:
https://www.space.com/37705-exoplanet-stratosphere-detected-wasp-121b.html?utm_source=notification

[LovesPNW]

1. Awesomeness!

I love this stuff!

[VWolf]

2. Hubble: best NASA investment evah. n/t

[exboyfil]

3. 2009 was the last servicing mission

Eight years is pretty impressive. It has been in service for 27 years.

I would like to put a shout out to Opportunity - still slaving away on the surface of Mars after 12 years.

Let's hope the James Webb can deploy without hitches. It is kind of scary when you read about what it has to do to deploy.