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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."

1 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. 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...