FP TrendingJan 28, 2021 18:40:25 IST
Astronauts have discovered an exoplanet that has no clouds. It is only the second of its kind found. According to study authors it is also the first cloudless ‘hot Jupiter’ found. According to a recitation with Harvard University, astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics and Harvard & Smithsonian were able to find the first Jupiter-like planet without clouds or mist in the visible atmosphere. The gas giant, named WASP-62b was first discovered in 2012 using the Southern Wide Angle Search for Plants (WASP) study, but this is the first time the sentiment has been studied .
Cloudless Hot Jupiter. Image: M Weiss / CfA
Speaking about it, the study’s lead author Munazza Alam said he has been working on an exoplanet character for his dissertation, where he will take out planets and follow them to their atmosphere. to identify. According to the report, WASP-62b is 575 light years away and about half the mass of Jupiter of our solar system. However, unlike Jupiter, WASP-62b completes a solar cycle in four and a half days. Jupiter will take 12 years. Because it is so close to the star, so recognizable by its ruggedness in orbital time, it is called ‘hot Jupiter’.
Alam monitored WASP-62b while swiping in front of the host star three times, making observations that could detect the presence of sodium and potassium in the planet’s atmosphere.
According to researchers, although there was no evidence of potassium, the presence of sodium was obvious and the team was able to see the full line of sodium in their date. Clouds or fog would have removed the entire sodium sign, Alam explained, saying “This is smoke gun evidence that we see a clear feeling.”
The results were published this month in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.