NASA, ESA, and D. Aguilar
(Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) - GJ1214b, old hat in this artist's scrutinize, is a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Obtain. New observations from the...supplementary NASA/ESA
Hubble Gap Grovel show that it is a waterworld enshrouded by a slow on the uptake, cloudy ambiance. GJ 1214b represents a new type of planet, all but nil seen in the Lunar Set up or any other planetary system at this moment personal. less than
http://news.yahoo.com/type-alien-planet-steamy-waterworld-162802250.html
Scientists grip bare a new
type of alien
planet - a cloudy waterworld that is hefty than Obtain but smaller than Uranus.
The standard-bearer for this new class of
exoplanet is called GJ 1214b, which astronomers first
bare in December 2009. New observations by NASA's Hubble Gap Grovel choose that GJ 1214b is a tasteless world enshrouded by a slow on the uptake, cloudy ambiance.
"GJ 1214b is all but no planet we acknowledge of,"
psychotherapy person in command compound Zachory Berta of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Organization., supposed in a admission. "A awful segment of its stack is complete up of water."
Toting up TO THE Large quantity
To date, astronomers grip bare supplementary
than 700 planets external our solar system, once about 2,300 supplementary "candidates"
pending buttress by log observations.
These alien planets are a varied squad. Astronomers grip found one
planet as light and hard work as Styrofoam, for request, and novel as devoted as iron. They've bare a few alien worlds that sphere two suns, all but Luke Skywalker's win planet of Tatooine in the "Introduce Wars" films. [The Strangest Perplexing Planets]
But GJ 1214b, which is to be found 40
light-years from Obtain in the constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer), is no matter which new the complete, researchers supposed.
This so-called "super-Earth" is about 2.7 time Earth's diameter and weighs re seven time as ominously as our win planet. It orbits a red-dwarf star at a breathing space of 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometres), caring it an tough surface high temperature of 446 degrees Fahrenheit (230 degrees Celsius) - too hot to load life as we acknowledge it.
Scientists first reported in 2010 that
GJ 1214b's ambiance is usual calm essentially of
water, but their findings were not ending. Berta and his bash recycled Hubble's Towering Realm Camera 3 to assistance dispel the reservations.
Hubble watched as GJ 1214b crossed in lead of its load star, and the scientists were able to uncover the construction of the planet's ambiance based on how it filtered the starlight.
"We're through Hubble to time the infrared
color of evening on this world," Berta supposed. "The Hubble quantity to a large extent tip the dignity in transform of a cloudy ambiance."
Berta and his equals report their
fight online in the Lunar Account.
A Watery Formation
Before astronomers acknowledge GJ 1241b's stack and
size, they're able to figure its control, which turns out to be fairly 2 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cc). Earth's control is 5.5 g/cc, seeing that that of water is
1 g/cc.
GJ 1214b thus appears to grip ominously supplementary
water than Obtain does, and ominously less than rock. The alien planet's entering frame is usual wholly idiosyncratic from that of our world.
"The high temperatures and high pressures
would form bizarre materials all but stifling chill or 'superfluid water,' substances that are highly alien to our everyday incident," Berta supposed.
GJ 1214b believably fashioned farther than out from
its star, everyplace water ice was heap, and then migrated in to its current place desire ago. In the spill, it would grip authorized supplementary Earth-like temperatures, but how desire this variety air lasted is mask, researchers supposed.
What GJ 1214b is so troublesome to Obtain, it's
a groom candidate for psychotherapy by cutting edge instruments. NASA's James Webb Gap Grovel, which is slated to appearance in 2018, may be able to get an in a straight line time off glance at the planet's ambiance, researchers supposed.
