{"id":3322,"date":"2013-07-11T15:04:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T15:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3322"},"modified":"2013-07-13T15:21:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T15:21:28","slug":"hubble-determines-the-color-of-an-exoplanet-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3322","title":{"rendered":"Hubble determines the color of an exoplanet for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Hubble telescope has determined the true color of an exoplanet for the first time:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/news\/heic1312\/\" target=\"_d\">Hubble spots azure blue planet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Astronomers using the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have, for the first time, determined the true colour of a planet orbiting another star. If seen up close this planet, known as HD 189733b, would be a deep azure blue, reminiscent of Earth\u2019s colour as seen from space.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s where the similarities end. This &#8220;deep blue dot&#8221; is a huge gas giant orbiting very close to its host star. The planet&#8217;s atmosphere is scorching with a temperature of over 1000 degrees Celsius, and it rains glass, sideways, in howling 7000 kilometre-per-hour winds <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/news\/heic1312\/#1\">[1]<\/a>.<\/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\/wTLR7tMdPf0?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>At a distance of 63 light-years from us, this turbulent alien world is one of the nearest exoplanets to Earth that can be seen crossing the face of its star. It has been intensively studied by Hubble and other telescopes, and its atmosphere has been found to be dramatically changeable and exotic, with hazes and violent flares (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/news\/heic0720\/\">heic0720<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/news\/heic1209\/\">heic1209<\/a>). Now, this planet is the subject of an important first: the first measurement of an exoplanet&#8217;s visible colour.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>This planet has been studied well in the past, both by ourselves and other teams,<\/em>&#8221; says Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Pont of the University of Exeter, UK, leader of the Hubble observing programme and an author of this new paper. &#8220;<em>But measuring its colour is a real first \u2014 we can actually imagine what this planet would look like if we were able to look at it directly.<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In order to measure what this planet would look like to our eyes, the astronomers measured how much light was reflected off the surface of HD 189733b \u2014 a property known as albedo <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/news\/heic1312\/#2\">[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>HD 189733b is faint and close to its star. To isolate the planet&#8217;s light from this starlight, the team used Hubble&#8217;s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) to peer at the system before, during, and after the planet passed behind its host star as it orbited. As it slipped behind its star, the light reflected from the planet was temporarily blocked from view, and the amount of light observed from the system dropped. But this technique also shows how the light changes in other ways \u2014 for example, its colour <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/news\/heic1312\/#3\">[3]<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We saw the brightness of the whole system drop in the blue part of the spectrum when the planet passed behind its star,&#8221;<\/em> explains Tom Evans of the University of Oxford, UK, first author of the paper. <em>&#8220;From this, we can gather that the planet is blue, because the signal remained constant at the other colours we measured.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The planet&#8217;s azure blue colour does not come from the reflection of a tropical ocean, but is due to a hazy, turbulent atmosphere thought to be laced with silicate particles, which scatter blue light <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/news\/heic1312\/#4\">[4]<\/a>. Earlier observations using different methods have reported evidence for scattering of blue light on the planet, but these most recent Hubble observations give robust confirming evidence, say the researchers.<\/p>\n<p>HD 189733b presented a favourable case for these kinds of measurements as it belongs to a class of planets known as &#8220;hot Jupiters&#8221;. These massive planets are similar in size to the gas giants in the Solar System, but instead lie very close to their parent star \u2014 this size and proximity to their star make them perfect subjects for exoplanet hunting. We know that hot Jupiters are numerous throughout the Universe. As we do not have one close to home in our own Solar System, studies of planets like HD 189733b are important to help us understand these dramatic objects.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>It&#8217;s difficult to know exactly what causes the colour of a planet&#8217;s atmosphere, even for planets in the Solar System,<\/em>&#8221; says Pont <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/news\/heic1312\/#5\">[5]<\/a>. &#8220;<em>But these new observations add another piece to the puzzle over the nature and atmosphere of HD 189733b. We are slowly painting a more complete picture of this exotic planet.<\/em>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>====<br \/>\nArtist&#8217;s impression of HD 188733b:<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/images\/heic1312d\/\" target=\"_d\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Artists impression of HD 189733b\" src=\"http:\/\/www.spacetelescope.org\/static\/archives\/images\/medium\/heic1312d.jpg\" width=\"320\" height=\"256\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>This illustration shows a &#8220;hot Jupiter&#8221; planet known as HD 189733b orbiting its star, HD 189733. The NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope measured the actual visible light colour of the planet, which is deep blue. This colour is not due to the presence of oceans, but is caused by the effects of a scorching atmosphere where silicate particles melt to make &#8220;raindrops&#8221; of glass that scatter blue light more than red light.<\/p>\n<p>The planet HD 189733b was discovered in 2005 and is so close to its star that it is gravitationally &#8220;tidally locked&#8221;, so that one side always faces the star and the other side is always dark.<\/p>\n<p>Because the planet is only 63 light-years from Earth, a visitor would see many of the same stars we see in our nighttime sky, though the constellation patterns would be different. Our Sun and the nearest star to our Sun, Alpha Centauri, appear as two faint stars near the centre of the image.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Credit:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (AURA\/STScI)<\/p>\n<p>===<\/p>\n<p>This video shows where the Hubble telescope finds this star:<\/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\/w2gmjNpKh6M?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>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hubble telescope has determined the true color of an exoplanet for the first time: Hubble spots azure blue planet Astronomers using the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have, for the first time, determined the true colour of a planet orbiting another star. If seen up close this planet, known as HD 189733b, would be a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3322\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hubble determines the color of an exoplanet for the first time<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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":""},"categories":[12,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-exoplanets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-RA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16830,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=16830","url_meta":{"origin":3322,"position":0},"title":"Hubble: Observations indicate a Neptune-sized moon orbiting Jupiter-sized exoplanet","author":"TopSpacer","date":"October 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Researchers using the Hubble telescope appear to have observed a gas-giant sized Moon orbiting an even larger planet in another star system: Hubble finds compelling evidence for a moon outside the Solar System Neptune-sized moon orbits Jupiter-sized planet Using the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and older data from the Kepler\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/heic1817a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14915,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14915","url_meta":{"origin":3322,"position":1},"title":"Hubble telescope finds exoplanet to be pitch black","author":"TopSpacer","date":"September 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A new finding with the\u00a0Hubble Space Telescope: Hubble observes pitch black planet Astronomers have discovered that the well-studied exoplanet WASP-12b reflects almost no light, making it appear essentially pitch black. This discovery sheds new light on the atmospheric composition of the planet and also refutes previous hypotheses about WASP-12b\u2019s atmosphere.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/heic1714a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15658,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=15658","url_meta":{"origin":3322,"position":2},"title":"NASA\/ESA: Hubble observes more water in exoplanet atmosphere than expected","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A new finding by the Hubble Telescope: Hubble observes exoplanet atmosphere in more detail than ever before An international team of scientists has used the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study the atmosphere of the hot exoplanet WASP-39b. By combining this new data with older data they created the most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/heic1804a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/heic1804a1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/heic1804a1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/heic1804a1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11885,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11885","url_meta":{"origin":3322,"position":3},"title":"ESA\/Hubble: Study of 10 exo-Jupiter planets finds where the water is hiding","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A report from the\u00a0ESA\/Hubble\u00a0team: Hubble reveals diversity of exoplanet atmospheres Largest ever comparative study solves missing water mystery Astronomers have used the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope to study the atmospheres of ten hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets in detail, the largest number of such planets ever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"This image shows an artist\u2019s impression of the ten hot Jupiter exoplanets studied by David Sing and his colleagues. From top left to to lower left these planets are WASP-12b, WASP-6b, WASP-31b, WASP-39b, HD 189733b, HAT-P-12b, WASP-17b, WASP-19b, HAT-P-1b and HD 209458b. The images are to scale with each other. HAT-P-12b, the smallest of them, is approximately the size of Jupiter, while WASP-17b, the largest planet in the sample, is almost twice the size. The planets are also depicted with a variety of different cloud properties. There is almost no information about the colours of the planets available, with the exception of HD 189733b, which became known as the blue planet (heic1312). The hottest planets within the sample are portrayed with a glowing night side. This effect is strongest on WASP-12b, the hottest exoplanet in the sample, but also visible on WASP-19b and WASP-17b. It is also known that several of the planets exhibit strong Rayleigh scattering. This effect causes the blue hue of the daytime sky and the reddening of the Sun at sunset on Earth. It is also visible as a blue edge on the planets WASP-6b, HD 189733b, HAT-P-12b, and HD 209458b. The wind patterns shown on these ten planets, which resemble the visible structures on Jupiter, are based on theoretical models.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/heic1524a1-1024x625.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8402,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8402","url_meta":{"origin":3322,"position":4},"title":"Hubble finds three Jupiter sized exoplanets to be surprisingly dry","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Hubble telescope looks at three gas giants, or \"Hot Jupiters\", around distant stars that are similar to our sun and find little sign of water:\u00a0Surprised scientists come up \u2018nearly dry\u2019 in search for water on \u2018hot Jupiter\u2019 planets - The Washington Post Here is the NASA press release: Hubble\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"Planet HD 209458b in the constellation Pegasus","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/673xvariable_height\/public\/14-197.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15964,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=15964","url_meta":{"origin":3322,"position":5},"title":"Hubble makes first observation of helium in the atmosphere of an exoplanet","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Observations of planets around other stars continue to produce a steady stream of \"firsts\": Hubble Detects Helium in the Atmosphere of an Exoplanet for the First Time Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have detected helium in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-107b. This is the first time this element\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/STSCI-H-p1827a-z-1000x6451.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3322"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3324,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions\/3324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}