Thousands of planets have been found outside the Solar System , straddle from globe - sized worlds to massive gas giants . An intermediate type of major planet call a “ A-one - Earth ” has earn significant sake , though , as it may be the most common case in the universe – and now uranologist have detected gaseous state in the atmosphere of one of these worlds for the first clip .
The major planet in question is 55 Cancri e , also have sex as"Janssen,“which is more than eight times the mass of Earth and settle 40 light - years from us . The planet was already interesting because it had been dubbed a“diamond planet,”with some model suggest it had a carbon - ample interior similar to diamond . late research , however , dampened those theories . Now it seems the initial line of thought may have been correct .
“ This is a very exciting result because it ’s the first prison term that we have been able-bodied to come up the spectral fingerprints that show the throttle present in the atmosphere of a super - Earth , ” say Angelos Tsiaras , a PhD student at the University College London , where the inquiry was led , in astatement . The event are to be publish in the Astrophysical Journal , with a pre - print available onArxiv .
The finding , made using data from the Hubble Space Telescope , show the atm control both hydrogen and helium , but no water vapor . This latter point is to be expected , think the planet orbit extremely tight to its host star , with a year endure just 18 hours and temperatures hit 2,000 K ( 1,727 ° blow ) . Its Earth’s surface is likely a hellish berth , inhospitable to spirit as we know it .
Above is an spiritedness of the major planet in ambit around its parent star . ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser
“ If the presence of H cyanide and other molecules is confirmed in a few long time time by the next generation of infrared telescopes , it would endorse the theory that this planet is indeed C rich and a very exotic place , ” said Professor Jonathan Tennyson , also from UCL , in the assertion . “ Although , hydrogen nitril or prussic Lucy in the sky with diamonds [ as it ’s sometimes called ] is highly poisonous , so it is perhaps not a planet I would care to be on ! ”
In their report , the researchers note that the discovery of an aura is a significant finding in itself , specially considering the satellite ’s position around its star . They postulate that its H and helium may have been retain from the protoplanetary phonograph record from which it formed .
55 Cancri e is unlikely to be the norm for superintendent - Earths , but the technique used here could put up analytic thinking of other such worlds .
