NASA | JPL-Caltech | Ames | Kepler | 2016 Oct 18
[img3="This illustration represents how hot Jupiters of different temperatures and different cloud compositions might appear to a person flying over the dayside of these planets on a spaceship, based on computer modeling. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/V. Parmentier"]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/kepler/2 ... 074-16.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]The weather forecast for faraway, blistering planets called "hot Jupiters" might go something like this: Cloudy nights and sunny days, with a high of 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,300 degrees Celsius, or 1,600 Kelvin).
These mysterious worlds are too far away for us to see clouds in their atmospheres. But a recent study using NASA's Kepler space telescope and computer modeling techniques finds clues to where such clouds might gather and what they're likely made of. ...
Hot Jupiters, among the first of the thousands of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) discovered in our galaxy so far, orbit their stars so tightly that they are perpetually charbroiled. And while that might discourage galactic vacationers, the study represents a significant advance in understanding the structure of alien atmospheres. ...
Transitions in the Cloud Composition of Hot Jupiters - Vivien Parmentier et al
- Astrophysical Journal 828(1):22 (2016 Sep 01) DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/828/1/22
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1602.03088 > 09 Feb 2016 (v1), 27 Jun 2016 (v2)