Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

First Map of an Extrasolar Planet

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the google-not-earth dept.

jiawen writes "Data from the Spitzer Space Telescope has been used by researchers to make the first-ever map of an extrasolar planet. It's a weather map, more precisely, showing temperature variations over the surface of a Hot Jupiter. It really is hot: even the coldest regions are about 1200 degrees F."

3 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Amazing that this is possible at all by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes, it's the most interesting area of space exploration now, and imagine where we'll be if the Kepler mission is successful and don't get further pushed ahead in time by budget cuts.

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  2. Re:Amazing that this is possible at all by notabaggins · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It doesn't seem all that long ago that scientists were merely *inferring* the presence of planets in other solar systems, now we are able to derive a map of one from IR data? Thats an amazing amount of progress for so short a time period.

    More than that, it hasn't been all that long since we were debating how common extra-solar planets might be as we had no data at all. For that matter, it's been all of 77 years since the discovery of Pluto, roughly the range of a human lifespan.

    Maybe it's me but, some days, you just have to sit back and think... wow...

  3. Re:1200 degrees F? by teh+kurisu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I disagree. For weather purposes, having the freezing point of water at 0 is more useful, both because freezing temperatures make a substantial difference to human behaviour, and because it is the same worldwide. I live in what would be described as a temperate area, and temperatures here have never reached 100F and rarely dip as low as 0F, so the Fahrenheit scale is less useful.