Hubble Space Telescope spots clouds on alien worlds

Credit: The Independent

Hubble Space Telescope spots clouds on alien worlds

Astronomers have spotted clouds in the atmospheres of two planets outside our solar system, with a pair of research papers suggesting that these sorts of cloudy alien worlds might be far more common than previously thought.

Two separate research teams examined data from the Hubble Space Telescope relating to the extra solar planets GJ 1214b and GJ 436b. Located 42 light-years away from Earth, GJ 1214b is a prime example of a ‘super-Earth’ planet whilst GJ 436b - 36 light-years away - is a ‘warm Neptune’.

Super-Earths are planets with a mass between that of Earth and Neptune (GJ 1214b has a radius 2.7 times that of Earth) whilst warm Neptunes are, as the name suggests, hot versions of our own Neptune. They maintain a close orbit to their star of less than one astronomical unit (roughly the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, or around 90,000,000 miles).  Next Page >>

Source: independent.co.uk

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