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File:Exotic Atmospheres.jpg

Summary

Description
English: The new finding follows the detection of these same organic molecules in the atmosphere of another hot, giant planet, called HD 189733b, by astronomers using Hubble and Spitzer data. Astronomers can now begin comparing the chemistry and dynamics of these two planets, and search for similar measurements of other candidate exoplanets, advancing toward the goal of being able to characterize planets where life could exist.
Date 20 February 2007, 15:25:03
Source http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/spitzer-20091020.html
Author NASA

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Image title
  • This artist's concept shows a cloudy Jupiter-like planet that orbits very close to its fiery hot star. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was recently used to capture spectra, or molecular fingerprints, of two "hot Jupiter" worlds like the one depicted here. This is the first time a spectrum has ever been obtained for an exoplanet, or a planet beyond our solar system.

    The ground-breaking observations were made with Spitzer's spectrograph, which pries apart infrared light into its basic wavelengths, revealing the "fingerprints" of molecules imprinted inside. Spitzer studied two planets, HD 209458b and HD 189733b, both of which were found, surprisingly, to have no water in the tops of their atmospheres. The results suggest that the hot planets are socked in with dry, high clouds, which are obscuring water that lies underneath. In addition, HD209458b showed hints of silicates, suggesting that the high clouds on that planet contain very fine sand-like particles.

    Capturing the spectra from the two hot-Jupiter planets was no easy feat. The planets cannot be distinguished from their stars and instead appear to telescopes as single blurs of light. One way to get around this is through what is known as the secondary eclipse technique. In this method, changes in the total light from a so-called transiting planet system are measured as a planet is eclipsed by its star, vanishing from our Earthly point of view. The dip in observed light can then be attributed to the planet alone.

    This technique, first used by Spitzer in 2005 to directly detect the light from an exoplanet, currently only works at infrared wavelengths, where the differences in brightness between the planet and star are less, and the planet's light is easier to pick out. For example, if the experiment had been done in visible light, the star is so much brighter than the planet that the total light from the system would appear to be unchanged, even as the planet disappeared from view.

    To capture spectra of the planets, Spitzer observed their secondary eclipses with its spectrograph. It took a spectrum of a star together with its planet, then, as the planet disappeared from view, a spectrum of just the star. By subtracting the spectrum of the star from the spectrum of the star and planet together, astronomers were able to determine the spectrum of the planet itself.
Author Spitzer Space Telescope
Copyright holder http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/mediaimages/copyright.shtml
Date and time of data generation 20 October 2009
Width 3,000 px
Height 2,400 px
Bits per component
  • 8
  • 8
  • 8
Compression scheme LZW
Pixel composition RGB
Orientation Normal
Number of components 3
Horizontal resolution 300 dpi
Vertical resolution 300 dpi
Data arrangement chunky format
Software used Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
File change date and time 14:53, 5 June 2009
Colour space sRGB
Contact information

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu

1200 E. California Blvd.

Pasadena, CA, 91125 USA
Short title
  • Exotic Atmospheres
Credit/Provider NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)
Headline The basic chemistry for life has been detected in a second hot gas planet, HD 209458b, depicted in this artist's concept. Two of NASA's Great Observatories - the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, yielded spectral observations that revealed molecules of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor in the planet's atmosphere. HD 209458b, bigger than Jupiter, occupies a tight, 3.5-day orbit around a sun-like star about 150 light years away in the constellation Pegasus. Planets like this one, which circle stars beyond our sun, are called exoplanets.
Source Spitzer Space Telescope
IIM version 2

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