hydrogen-rich atmosphere tagged posts

This artist’s concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets’ diameters, masses, and distances from the host star, as of February 2018. Credit: NASA, JPL/Caltech, and R. Hurt and T. Pyle (IPAC)

Astronomers using Hubble have conducted the first spectroscopic survey of the Earth-sized planets (d, e, f, and g) within the habitable zone around the nearby star TRAPPIST-1. This study is a follow-up to Hubble observations made in May 2016 of the atmospheres of the inner TRAPPIST-1 planets b and c. Hubble reveals that at least 3 of the exoplanets (d, e, and f) do not seem to contain puffy, hydrogen-rich atmospheres similar to gaseous planets such as Neptune...

An artists impression of GJ 436b can be seen in the background in this image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astronomers have discovered a comet-like exoplanet that trails a huge, Rapunzel-like hair made of gas behind it. The research team focused the Hubble Space Telescope on an exoplanet that had already been seen losing its atmosphere, which forms an enormous cloud of hydrogen, giving the planet the appearance of a giant comet. During earlier observations in 2015, it was not possible to cover the whole cloud, whose shape was predicted by numerical simulations. Thanks to these new observations, however, the scientists have finally been able to confirm the initial predictions.

Exoplanet GJ 436b is similar in size to Neptune (i.e. about four times larger than Earth)...