Researchers illuminate super-Earths atmosphere - Spiegel Online

researchers have looked upon the atmosphere of a so-called super-Earth with another planet and have encountered there on a dense cloud cover. The approximately 40 light years distant planet with the catalog number Gliese 1214b is completely veiled, as reported Laura Kreidberg from the University of Chicago and her colleagues in the journal “Nature”.

It is the first time, according to the university that the atmosphere of a super-Earth has been clearly characterized. “We go from very different types of clouds from, as you would expect about on the earth,” Kreidberg explained in a statement. At a temperature of around 230 degrees Celsius, the super-Earth enveloped probably clouds of potassium chloride or zinc sulfide.

first indications of a water-rich atmosphere at Gliese 1214b had published in September Japanese astronomers. They had investigated whether short-wavelength light is scattered more of the planet’s atmosphere as long-wave. From this so-called Rayleigh scattering, but there was no sign – a clear sign of water vapor in the air

. More than a thousand exoplanets are known

describe as super-Earths Astronomers planets of other stars, so exoplanets that are larger than Earth but smaller than the gas planet Neptune in our solar system. Gliese 1214b has about 2.7 times the diameter of the Earth and orbits a dwarf sun in the constellation Ophiuchus. All 38 hours of pulling the exoplanet seen from Earth in its orbit just before its host star over. Then the starlight shines through the planet’s atmosphere, so astronomers can study their properties based on a so-called transmission spectrum.

The team Kreidberg taught the “Hubble” space telescope a total of 96 hours on the distant planet and found that atmospheric gases can not identify in the transmission spectrum. The only explanation for this is according to the researchers, a dense cloud cover that leaves no starlight through the atmosphere.

In the same way examined a second team with “Hubble” tell the atmosphere of approximately Neptune-sized exoplanet Gliese 436b and also found evidence of a dense cloud cover, like Heather Knutson of the California Institute of Technology and colleagues Genin same issue of “Nature” . As the super-Earth Gliese 1214b orbits Gliese 436b also much closer to its host star than the planets of our solar system, so it is very warm to him.

More than 1,000 exoplanets, astronomers have discovered so far. Super-Earths and Neptune-size planet of belonging, according to previous studies on the most common types of planets in our Milky Way. Since super-Earths are not present in our solar system, the two studies provide important pieces of the puzzle to understand the nature of this widespread Planetenart.

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