NASA/STScI: Hubble Finds Three Surprisingly Dry Exoplanets
Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:16 pm
Hubble Finds Three Surprisingly Dry Exoplanets
NASA | STScI | HubbleSite | 2014 Jul 24
H2O Abundances in the Atmospheres of Three Hot Jupiters - Nikku Madhusudhan et al
NASA | STScI | HubbleSite | 2014 Jul 24
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the Sun — and have come up nearly dry.
The three planets, HD 189733b, HD 209458b, and WASP-12b, are between 60 and 900 light-years away. These giant gaseous worlds are so hot, with temperatures between 1,500 and 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, that they are ideal candidates for detecting water vapor in their atmospheres.
However, to the surprise of the researchers, the planets surveyed have only one-tenth to one one-thousandth the amount of water predicted by standard planet-formation theories. ...
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
H2O Abundances in the Atmospheres of Three Hot Jupiters - Nikku Madhusudhan et al
- Astrophysical Journal Letters 791(1) L9 (2014 Aug 10) DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/791/1/L9 (pdf)