{"id":14904,"date":"2017-09-13T13:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14904"},"modified":"2017-09-13T01:16:04","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T05:16:04","slug":"eso-observation-of-titanium-oxide-in-atmosphere-of-gas-giant-exoplanet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14904","title":{"rendered":"ESO: Observation of titanium oxide in atmosphere of gas giant exoplanet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The latest report from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/news\/eso1729\/?lang\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESO<\/a> (European Southern Observatory):<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/news\/eso1729\/?lang\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Inferno World with Titanium Skies<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><em>ESO\u2019s VLT makes first detection of titanium oxide in an exoplanet<\/em><\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_14905\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14905\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/images\/eso1729a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"14905\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?attachment_id=14905\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/eso1729a1.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"700,410\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;ESO\/M. Kornmesser&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;An artist&#039;s impression showing the exoplanet WASP-19b, in which atmosphere astronomers detected titanium oxide for the first time. In large enough quantities, titanium oxide can prevent heat from entering or escaping an atmosphere, leading to a thermal inversion \\u2014 the temperature is higher in the upper atmosphere and lower further down, the opposite of the normal situation.&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1505329200&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Artist\\u2019s impression of the exoplanet WASP-19b&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Artist\u2019s impression of the exoplanet WASP-19b\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;An artist&amp;#8217;s impression showing the exoplanet WASP-19b, in which atmosphere astronomers detected titanium oxide for the first time. In large enough quantities, titanium oxide can prevent heat from entering or escaping an atmosphere, leading to a thermal inversion \u2014 the temperature is higher in the upper atmosphere and lower further down, the opposite of the normal situation.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/eso1729a1.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-14905\" src=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/eso1729a1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"305\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/eso1729a1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/eso1729a1-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14905\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>An artist&#8217;s impression showing the exoplanet WASP-19b, in which atmosphere astronomers detected titanium oxide for the first time. In large enough quantities, titanium oxide can prevent heat from entering or escaping an atmosphere, leading to a thermal inversion \u2014 the temperature is higher in the upper atmosphere and lower further down, the opposite of the normal situation. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/images\/eso1729a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Larger images.<\/a>]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>Astronomers using ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope have detected titanium oxide in an exoplanet atmosphere for the first time. This discovery around the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-19b exploited the power of the FORS2 instrument. It provides unique information about the chemical composition and the temperature and pressure structure of the atmosphere of this unusual and very hot world. The results appear today in the journal Nature.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/znvXbvs2LEg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Astronomers using ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope have detected titanium oxide in an exoplanet atmosphere for the first time. This discovery around the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-19b exploited the power of the FORS2 instrument. It provides unique information about the chemical composition and the temperature and pressure structure of the atmosphere of this unusual and very hot world.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/videos\/eso1729a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The video is available in 4K UHD<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A team of astronomers led by Elyar Sedaghati, an ESO fellow and recent graduate of TU Berlin, has examined the atmosphere of the exoplanet\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/WASP-19b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WASP-19b<\/a>\u00a0in greater detail than ever before. This remarkable planet has about the same mass as Jupiter, but is so close to its parent star that it completes an orbit in just 19 hours and its atmosphere is estimated to have a temperature of about 2000 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tge4i80Y7Vw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Artist impression of the light passing through the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet WASP-19b. Astronomers detected titanium oxide, together with water and traces of sodium, in the atmosphere of the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-19b. Part of the stellar light is absorbed in the atmosphere by these molecules, while other parts get scattered or go through almost unchanged. Credit: ESO\/M. Kornmesser<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As WASP-19b passes in front of its parent star, some of the starlight passes through the planet\u2019s atmosphere and leaves subtle fingerprints in the light that eventually reaches Earth. By using the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/teles-instr\/paranal-observatory\/vlt\/vlt-instr\/fors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FORS2<\/a>\u00a0instrument on the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/teles-instr\/paranal-observatory\/vlt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Very Large Telescope<\/a> the team was able to carefully analyse this light and deduce that the atmosphere contained small amounts of titanium oxide, water and traces of sodium, alongside a strongly scattering global haze.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u201cDetecting such molecules is, however, no simple feat,\u201d explains Elyar Sedaghati, who spent 2 years as ESO student to work on this project. \u201cNot only do we need data of exceptional quality, but we also need to perform a sophisticated analysis. We used an algorithm that explores many millions of spectra spanning a wide range of chemical compositions, temperatures, and cloud or haze properties in order to draw our conclusions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Titanium oxide is rarely seen on Earth. It is known to exist in the atmospheres of cool stars. In the atmospheres of hot planets like WASP-19b, it acts as a heat absorber. If present in large enough quantities, these molecules prevent heat from entering or escaping through the atmosphere,\u00a0leading to a thermal inversion \u2014 the temperature is higher in the upper atmosphere and lower further down, the opposite of the normal situation. Ozone plays a similar role in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, where it causes inversion in the stratosphere.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u201cThe presence of titanium oxide in the atmosphere of WASP-19b can have substantial effects on the atmospheric temperature structure and circulation.\u201d explains Ryan MacDonald, another team member and an astronomer at Cambridge University, United Kingdom. \u201cTo be able to examine exoplanets at this level of detail is promising and very exciting.\u201d\u00a0adds Nikku Madhusudhan from Cambridge University who oversaw the theoretical interpretation of the observations.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The astronomers collected observations of WASP-19b over a period of more than one year.\u00a0By measuring the relative variations in the planet\u2019s radius at different wavelengths of light that passed through the exoplanet\u2019s atmosphere and comparing the observations to atmospheric models, they could extrapolate different properties, such as the chemical content, of the exoplanet\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BQ6fXN9y5qI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Credit:\u00a0ESO\/<a href=\"http:\/\/spaceengine.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/spaceengine.org<\/a>. Music: John Dyson<\/p>\n<p>This new information about the presence of metal oxides like titanium oxide and other substances will allow much better modeling of exoplanet atmospheres. Looking to the future, once astronomers are able to observe atmospheres of possibly habitable planets, the improved models will give them a much better idea of how to interpret those observations.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>\u201cThis important discovery is the outcome of a refurbishment of the FORS2 instrument that was done exactly for this purpose,\u201d adds team member Henri Boffin, from ESO, who led the refurbishment project. \u201cSince then, FORS2 has become the best instrument to perform this kind of study from the ground.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The latest report from ESO (European Southern Observatory): Inferno World with Titanium Skies ESO\u2019s VLT makes first detection of titanium oxide in an exoplanet Astronomers using ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope have detected titanium oxide in an exoplanet atmosphere for the first time. This discovery around the hot-Jupiter planet WASP-19b exploited the power of the FORS2 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14904\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">ESO: Observation of titanium oxide in atmosphere of gas giant exoplanet<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-3So","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27315,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=27315","url_meta":{"origin":14904,"position":0},"title":"ESO: First 3D observations of an exoplanet&#8217;s atmosphere","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) \u201cOut of science fiction\u201d: First 3D observations of an exoplanet\u2019s atmosphere reveal a unique climate Astronomers have peered through the atmosphere of a planet beyond the Solar System, mapping its 3D structure for the first time. 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