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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Astronomers determine a nearby alien planet is blue…just like Earth

• sciencerecorder.com
 

The planet, known as HD 189733b, is located 63 light years away and is considered a “hot Jupiter,” a gas giant that orbits in close proximity to its parent star. The study states that it is a deep cobalt blue in color, not unlike how Earth’s water covered surface appears from space. Except this color isn’t from water; rather, astronomers believe it comes from the blue light spread by silicate particles in the planet’s atmosphere.

Yet it is how the color was discovered that is interesting. Co-author Frederic Pont, of the University of Exeter in the UK and head of the Hubble observational program, said that the planet has been studied frequently in the past but that this is the first time it—or any exoplanet—has indicated an observable coloration.


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