HD 189733 b is a planet orbiting a yellow dwarf star about 63 light-years from Earth. It was discovered in 2005 and is a little more massive than Jupiter. It's close to it's star (it completes an orbit in just over 2 days) and is known as a hot Jupiter.
Astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope have estimated the temperature is 1200 to 1700 degrees F. About a year ago it became the first extra-solar planet to be mapped (it's temperature variations). It's one of the first two planets to have spectroscopic observations which identifies some of the elements in the atmosphere. Previously they've found a significant amount of water vapor.
Today a paper published in Nature reports observations using the Hubble Space Telescope have found Methane (CH4) in the atmosphere. This is the first time methane has been found in the atmosphere of planet outside our solar system, and doing so really pushed the Hubble to its limits.
Methane is interesting for two reasons. First methane could combine with other organic compounds to form amino acids, the building block of life on Earth, though not at the very high temperatures on this world. It's also something that like oxygen is formed by life on Earth, without life, there wouldn't be much of either on Earth. Being able to find it here, means we might find it on more hospitable words. The second is that it's odd to find methane at these temperatures, where the carbon would more naturally produce carbon monoxide (CO).
Update: APOD has a nice map.
No comments:
Post a Comment