Signs of water found on 5 distant planets Faint signatures of water have been spotted in the atmospheres of five distant planets, U.S. space agency NASA said Tuesday. The planets are not the size of Earth, but rather massive worlds known as hot Jupiters because they orbit so close to their stars, NASA said in a statement. The presence of atmospheric water was reported previously on a few exoplanets orbiting stars beyond our solar system, but researchers led by the University of Maryland in College Park was for the first time able to conclusively measure and compare the profiles and intensities of these signatures on multiple worlds, it said. Were very confident that we see a water signature for multiple planets, said Avi Mandell, a planetary scientist at NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center, and lead author of an Astrophysical Journal paper. This work really opens the door for comparing how much water is present in atmospheres on different kinds of exoplanets, for example hotter versus cooler ones. All the five planets, named WASP-17b, HD209458b, WASP-12b, WASP- 19b and XO-1b, orbit nearby stars, however, the strengths of their water signatures varied, the U.S. space agency said. WASP-17b, a planet with an especially puffed-up atmosphere, and HD209458b had the strongest signals. The signatures for the other three planets, WASP-12b, WASP-19b and XO-1b, also are consistent with water, it said. Read more: bit.ly/1cUbOsp
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 02:08:22 +0000
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