Astronomers have found a vast exoplanet in the depths of space using a new technique for scanning the stars.
They made the first direct observations of a planet outside the solar system by combining the light from multiple telescopes.
The “super-Jupiter” they found exists 129 light years from Earth and has a stormy atmosphere with swirling clouds of iron and silicate.
Usually scientists have to employ indirect methods to study exoplanets because of the blinding light of their stars.
Sylvestre Lacour, from the Paris Observatory in France and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, said: ‘Our observations suggest a ball of gas illuminated from the interior, with rays of warm light swirling through stormy patches of dark clouds.
‘Convection moves around the clouds of silicate and iron particles, which disaggregate and rain down into the interior.
‘This paints a picture of a dynamic atmosphere of a giant exoplanet at birth, undergoing complex physical and chemical processes.”
Previous Gravity achievements include last year’s observation of gas swirling at 30% the speed of light just outside the massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Source: Read Full Article