General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHubble telescope spots azure blue planet where it rains glass
Astronomers have found a deep azure blue planet orbiting a star 63 light years away -- the first time they've been able to determine the actual color of a planet outside our solar system, NASA and the European Space Agency said Thursday.
The planet, known as HD 189733b, is a gas giant with a daytime temperature of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit where it possibly rains liquid glass sideways amid 4,500 mph winds, NASA says.
The blue color comes not from the reflection of an ocean, as on Earth, "but rather a hazy, blow-torched atmosphere containing high clouds laced with silicate particles," NASA says. "Silicates condensing in the heat could form very small drops of glass that scatter blue light more than red light."
The space agencies said astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered the planet in 2005 but only now have they been able to use Hubble's observations to determine the deep blue color.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/11/world/space-blue-planet/index.html
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)darkangel218
(13,985 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)And statistically, there's probably at least one!
Ofcourse, you'd die of alcohol poisoning just by stepping outside and taking ab reath.. .but! it's out there!
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)newfie11
(8,159 posts)Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)MyshkinCommaPrince
(611 posts)If and when we go there, we mustn't forget to take spiders with us.
Fascinating stuff.