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First Reflected Light From an Exoplanet Seen

Roland Piquepaille writes "European astronomers have for the first time ever been able to detect and monitor the visible light that is scattered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. Designated HD 189733b, also known as a 'hot Jupiter,' orbits a star slightly cooler and less massive than the Sun about 60 light-years from Earth. According to a Zurich news release, 'Polarization technique focuses limelight,' the researchers used 'techniques similar to how Polaroid sunglasses filter away reflected sunlight to reduce glare. They also directly traced the orbit of the planet, a feat of visualization not possible using indirect methods.' The team thinks that their findings are opening new opportunities for exploring physical conditions on exoplanets."

72 comments

  1. you dont want to know. by User+956 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Designated HD 189733b, also known as a 'hot Jupiter,'

    I've given my girlfriend a "hot Jupiter" before, but I didn't know it had an official scientific serial number.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:you dont want to know. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think you missed by two planets

    2. Re:you dont want to know. by Lerc · · Score: 1

      Thank you for a subtle version of the inevitable joke.

      --
      -- That which does not kill us has made its last mistake.
    3. Re:you dont want to know. by smittyoneeach · · Score: 1, Redundant

      About overshooting and getting Plutoed?

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    4. Re:you dont want to know. by cytg.net · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Designated HD 189733b, also known as a 'hot Jupiter,'

      I've given my girlfriend a "hot Jupiter" before, but I didn't know it had an official scientific serial number.
      you hear of many strange things, but the fetish of farting in your girlfriends general direction must be a new one .. wait.. oh crap..err bugger
    5. Re:you dont want to know. by Opportunist · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Please, leave the animals out of this, ok? Just for good taste's sake.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:you dont want to know. by flyingsquid · · Score: 1
      I've given my girlfriend a "hot Jupiter" before, but I didn't know it had an official scientific serial number.

      If that involves a large red spot in her lower hemisphere, you may want to think about going to a clinic...

    7. Re:you dont want to know. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  2. If only... by Scutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If only there were some sort of multi-media-enabled information sharing platform available so that everyone could see the visualizations for themselves. Oh well.

    --

    "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    1. Re:If only... by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

      Mirror of image here: o.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:If only... by Scutter · · Score: 1

      Mirror of image here: o.

      Alright, you owe me a new keyboard.

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    3. Re:If only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mirror of image here: o

      Wow. They're really getting the best imaging out of the telescopes these days. Last time I checked, the image they had to work with was: .

    4. Re:If only... by jd · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That would require an array of telescopes roughly a mile in diameter. Certainly very possible, though as the square kilometer array has demonstrated, very hard to organize and fund.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    5. Re:If only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      -------joke
      O
      |
      \ /
      |
      / \

    6. Re:If only... by jd · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, the joke didn't fly over my head. It was obviously meant in jest. However, my reply is correct - to get an accurate 1 pixel image, you need a square kilometer array. To get something 2x2 pixels in size (about the size of a small o), you'd need an array a mile across. And for all of that, all you'd see is an image that looked almost exactly like an o - fairly uniform in the middle with a well-defined boundary. Thus, the true joke is that the joke is also true.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    7. Re:If only... by robbiedo · · Score: 1

      I wonder what the James Webb Telescope will do for exo-planet research?

    8. Re:If only... by jd · · Score: 2, Informative

      For planetary research, you want radio telescopes specifically tuned to frequencies of larger molecules (water, sulpher dioxide, something like that). This should be where the planets are brightest and where all other objects are dimmest. My understanding of the Webber telescope is that it won't be looking in that sort of range. It's also very small for what you really want.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    9. Re:If only... by smittyoneeach · · Score: 1

      It'll resign[1] once they decomission the Hubble.



      [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Webb "In 1987, he served as Secretary of the Navy...Webb resigned in 1988 after refusing to agree to reduce the size of the Navy."
      Requiring a footnote for a joke is a clear indicator that it's not funny, but, then again, neither was the 2006 Senate campaign in Virginia.

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    10. Re:If only... by KlaymenDK · · Score: 1

      Mirror of image here: .o

      There, fixed it for you...

    11. Re:If only... by khellendros1984 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hmmm....if you can make a legible o out of 4 pixels (a 2x2 square), then contact me over email, and I'll give you $500.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    12. Re:If only... by kvezach · · Score: 1

      Or a solar focus telescope, then you can use the sun as your lens. There's just that little detail about getting out to 550 AU!

    13. Re:If only... by aviators99 · · Score: 1

      >Mirror of image here: o.

      Is this a mirror of the planet, or another mirror of the goatse? I want to know whether I should be disgusted or not.

  3. Re:hidef images available on faster link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Goatse never gets old apparently.

  4. Polaroid Sunglasses? by parcanman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...the researchers used 'techniques similar to how Polaroid sunglasses filter away reflected sunlight to reduce glare..." Funny, I didn't even know Polaroid made sunglasses, here I thought they only made photography stuff. I assume the writer meant Polarized sunglasses?

    --
    Why lie when you can just make up stuff and claim it to be true?
    1. Re:Polaroid Sunglasses? by jcaldwel · · Score: 5, Informative

      You are right, Polaroid is a name brand, but they do make sunglasses.

      One definition from Dictionary.com: a brand of material for producing polarized light from unpolarized light by dichroism, consisting typically of a stretched sheet of colorless plastic treated with an iodine solution so as to have long, thin, parallel chains of polymeric molecules containing conductive iodine atoms. It is used widely in optical and lighting devices to reduce glare.

      ... it doesn't just refer to the cameras.

    2. Re:Polaroid Sunglasses? by Angry+Toad · · Score: 4, Informative

      A million years ago when I was a young one, calling them "Polaroid sunglasses" was actually pretty standard. The text probably reflects the age of the person who put the release together.

    3. Re:Polaroid Sunglasses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's no coincidence that polarized sunglasses have a name similar to Polaroid. Edwin Land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera, also invented the polarized film used in sunglasses. And the Polaroid company had the patent for that (then) new kind of polarizing film made by laying crystals down on plastic.

    4. Re:Polaroid Sunglasses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you sure that they were capitalizing "Polaroid" when they said it? "polaroid sunglasses" would seem to be semantically correct, and brand-free.

    5. Re:Polaroid Sunglasses? by Angry+Toad · · Score: 2, Informative

      I believe it became generic eventually (as in "I can't find my polaroids!") but started out as brand specific, as the original Polaroid Lenses (http://www.visionsunglasses.com/polaroid/) specifically filtered out (I think) horizontally polarized light to improve visibility while driving. I haven't heard it in general conversation for probably 25 years however.

    6. Re:Polaroid Sunglasses? by AmigaMMC · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I'm still crying for my Polaroid sunglasses left at the airport counter in Honolulu. They were my all time favorites/

  5. In other news... by peektwice · · Score: 2, Funny

    Steve Jobs sued the exoplanet for patent infringement, citing its ability to focus the limelight on anything other than him.

    --
    Other than this text, there is no discernible information contained in this sig.
  6. Re:hidef images available on faster link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Frak, you'd think I'd have learned to read links by now..

    *smacks forehead*

  7. So... by oblonski · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...we are not alone then, after all?

    --
    Move along now, nothing to see here! Go on!
  8. in other news by chrisb.au · · Score: 1

    next release of oakley sunglasses will have built in planet spotting capabilities.. wheee

  9. Exoplanet by blue+l0g1c · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dear scientists, thank you for finding me.

    XO -planet

    1. Re:Exoplanet by AmigaMMC · · Score: 1

      LOL I laughed really hard at this one :)

    2. Re:Exoplanet by bondjamesbond · · Score: 0

      P.S.: Please don't name me "Your Anus".

  10. Where is the picture? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just RTFA and all that's there is an "artist's rendition".
    Where the hell is the real picture?

    I call BS.

    1. Re:Where is the picture? by mangu · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The picture would show nothing more than a blurry spot, with one pixel slightly different from the others.


      Or did you really expect the very first reflected light ever seen from an exoplanet to be anything remarkable to a layperson?

    2. Re:Where is the picture? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny


      The picture would show nothing more than a blurry spot, with one pixel slightly different from the others.

      Or did you really expect the very first reflected light ever seen from an exoplanet to be anything remarkable to a layperson?



      I was hoping for nothing short of a photo of Elvis waving back to the graceland faithful.

    3. Re:Where is the picture? by 4D6963 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The picture would show nothing more than a blurry spot, with one pixel slightly different from the others.

      Yeah, but now, that pixel's spectrum would be quite interesting.

      --
      You just got troll'd!
    4. Re:Where is the picture? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The picture is here:

      http://gallery.spitzer.caltech.edu/Imagegallery/image.php?image_name=ssc2007-09a

      I don't know why TFA is reporting it like it's just coming out--this is old news.

    5. Re:Where is the picture? by damburger · · Score: 1

      Indeed. Hot Jupiters aren't that interesting in this department as they aren't likely to be habitable though - so I will be more impressed if they can do the same with a presumed terrestrial planet like Gliese 581c

      --
      If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
  11. Mod Up by alfrin · · Score: 1

    Fresh out of Mod points, mod up someone The naming is awkward, I believe the term "polarized" is more correct when refering to these kind of glasses, Polaroid leads to confusion.

  12. Re:Mod Up: Mod down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I believe the term "polarized" is more correct when refering to these kind of glasses, Polaroid leads to confusion

    The glasses aren‘t polarized, they are polarizing. AFAIK, the only thing one can polarize are waves

  13. Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm not, but you probably are.

  14. more info by jack455 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's got a wiki page as well. It's listed as only 15% more Massive than Jupiter.

    "Hot Jupiters (also called roasters, epistellar jovians, pegasids or pegasean planets) are a class of extrasolar planets whose mass is close to or exceeds that of Jupiter"

    I figured Hot Jubiter implied "hotter than" but I guess that's not the case.

    1. Re:more info by ZombieWomble · · Score: 3, Informative
      It does imply "hotter than", if you quote the full definition from the article you cite:

      ... but unlike in the Solar System, where Jupiter orbits at 5 AU, the planets referred to as hot Jupiters orbit within approximately 0.05 AU of their parent stars, about one eighth the distance that Mercury orbits the Sun. Being only 1% as far away from their parent star does imply they would be significantly hotter than Jupiter (I say imply because I can't be bothered to work out the exact numbers on whether it would be feasible for such a planet orbiting a very cold star to be colder than Jupiter. I doubt it, but don't want to go around throwing out absolutes without basis).
    2. Re:more info by ChronosWS · · Score: 1

      This is Slashdot. No one would bat an eye...

    3. Re:more info by jack455 · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure quoting it would make it more obvious than reading it, although it would've been more informative for others. I'd read it but missed the obvious.

    4. Re:more info by poopdeville · · Score: 1

      Hot Jupiters are Jupiter (or larger) sized planets that are significantly closer to their sun than our Jupiter is.

      --
      After all, I am strangely colored.
    5. Re:more info by Artifakt · · Score: 3, Informative

      It depends on whether such a planet could survive the blow offs that occur as the parent star enters a white dwarf stage. Low mass helium core white dwarfs as small as 0.11 solar masses do exist, probably as the remnants of what were originally already very small stars, but there's some question how such a small star ages fast enough that any have already blown off surface layers and collapsed. For example a star of only 0.7 standard solar masses is expected to end up as a white dwarf of about 0.4 solar masses, but stars starting even that small should have a lifetime of close to 14 billion years, so white dwarfs that proportionately small or even smaller shouldn't have had time to form by conventional means yet. There is a phenominon called Roche lobe mass transfer that could give rise to very low mass dwarfs, which would now be in binary systems, chiefly with pulsars as companion stars, but the process of forming the pulsar itself would be the sort of thing that would definitely blow a lot of a gas giant's atmosphere away into interstellar space even if the conventional small sister star's collapse was energetically light enough not to.
            Could some planet start as a 10 Jupiter mass close in giant, and end up with 1 or 2 Jupiter masses left after a big star just a million miles or so away went through at least one actual Nova and subsequent collapse to pulsar, and then a smaller, equally near star went through a small red giant phases and collapse to a white dwarf? It sounds a bit improbable, but what if the small mass star is exactly between the gas giant and the large mass star when the big one Novas?

      Note: For anyone who knows a little astrophysics, yes a typical white dwarf star is very hot, i.e. the surface temperature may be 23,000 K as opposed to our sun's modest 5,700 K, but the actual amount of heat emitted is very much smaller due to the small surface area. It takes a high mass (0.91 solar masses plus) white dwarf to have a zone around it hot enough for a planet to have liquid water at all. (So yes, they could have very close in but still cold Jovians).

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
  15. the true inevitable joke... by Tumbleweed · · Score: 0

    "That's no planet."

  16. Polaroid. n. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    The primary definition of the noun polaroid from the OED. The term polaroid has fallen into disfavour to polarized since the 80s, but it's still a correct term for the effect.

    1. a. A synthetic material which in the form of thin sheets produces a high degree of plane polarization in light passing through it.

    • 1936 Lancaster (Ohio) Gaz. 31 Jan. 1 The inventor, Edwin H. Land, 27, spent 10 years in perfecting the glass which he calls 'polaroid', because it polarizes light.
    • 1946 F. SCHNEIDER Qualitative Org. Microanal. iv. 119 The sections of Polaroid are cut so that their planes of polarization include an angle of approximately 5 when the segments are mounted.
    b. A piece of this material, esp. one used as a polarizer or analyser.
    • 1937 Hammond (Indiana) Times 2 July 21/6 When this light is forced to pass through a second polaroid..the light is broken up into beautiful colors.
    • 1967 H. VON KLÜBER in J. N. Xanthakis Solar Physics ix. 261 For nearly all analysers used in the detection of such inverse Zeeman effects{em}such as polaroids, double-splitting crystals, quarter- or half-wave plates, etc.{em}the result..is just the same.
    • 1976 Nature 11 Mar. 155/1 The relative intensities of the red and green components could then be varied by rotating a Polaroid interposed in the common beam.
    2. In pl. Sunglasses with Polaroid lenses. [...]

    3. a. A photograph taken with a Polaroid camera. [...]
    b. A camera of this kind. [...]

  17. Oh, Come On!! by psydad · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can't believe no one has done the Svetlana and Hot Jupiter angle...
    This is /. is it not??

  18. Re:hidef images available on faster link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't believe someone modded this as informative. Further proof that the mods don't read the comments.

    Moderation is a lot like democracy: it only works the way it's supposed to if people pay attention. Obviously, someone was asleep at the wheel, here.

  19. Re:Mod Up: Mod down by CrazedWalrus · · Score: 2, Funny

    And political news coverage.

  20. The mods sure are stupid today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's just like I said in my reply to the goatse troll: people don't read what they mod. Some idiot didn't take the time to read this post, and modded it down, despite the fact that it was warning someone of a link to goatse that doesn't say goaste in the visable url. Good job, moron.

    Attention whomever did the modding I speak of: You are stupid.

  21. Future possibilities by damburger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If an exoplanet can be directly imaged in this manner, does that mean some of the techniques used on stars for inferring the existence of exoplanets (wobbling, dimming etc) can be used to detect exomoons?

    This would be a great breakthrough if it were possible, seeing as most of the exoplanets we know about are gas giants and if they host life it is likely to be on their moons.

    --
    If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
    1. Re:Future possibilities by Loke+the+Dog · · Score: 1

      Thats true, but I'm not sure if exomoons are that interesting in that sense.

      Since moons tend to have no or very thin atmospheres, finding oxygen on them would be hard, and free oxygen would probably be the best proof of life that we can find on exoplanets with current technology. So even though moons probably are likely places for life, it will be very hard to prove its there.

    2. Re:Future possibilities by damburger · · Score: 1

      Titan has an atmosphere, and from what I understand it is very similar to that of a primodial Earth. Had Saturn been located within the Sun's habitable zone, I don't see any reason why complex life could've evolved there. Its not out of the question therefore for an exomoon to have an oxygen atmosphere.

      Another possible location for life is on icy moons of a further away gas giant. In our solar system such moons emit water vapour from their surfaces. This may be an avenue for detection.

      --
      If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
  22. goatse by conureman · · Score: 1

    As horrifying as it is, it doesn't piss me off like that fohootville crap.

    --
    The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
    1. Re:goatse by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Fohootville, Patootville - they're all the same to me.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  23. Mirror by conureman · · Score: 1

    I larfed twice, first I thought goatse, almost fell out of my chair. Then when I saw the imaging comment from AC, (good one, eh?) and LOL all over again. Now the ol' lady is yelling I woke her up.

    --
    The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
  24. Shame on the mods by Moderatbastard · · Score: 0

    Funny, I didn't even know Polaroid made sunglasses
    Slashdot's version of Newspeak:

    Ignorant is insightful, wrong is informative. Google is not your friend. Google has never been your friend..

    --
    1/3 of jokes get modded OT. If you get the joke, mod 1 in 3 insightful/interesting/underrated to restore karma balance.
  25. Re:epistellar jovians by Joseph+Hayes · · Score: 1

    I had a box of epistellar jovians in my stocking this year.

    --
    "The irony when tending a flock of sheep is the dogs you put in place to protect them are genetically mutated wolves"
  26. Master of Orion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *sigh* pang of nostalgia, reminds me of MOO, now we can send colony ships instead of scout ships.

  27. Re:Mod Up: Mod down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Um...so you've never made a magnet in chemistry class? You can even polarize water... (or at least polarize the ions within water...)

  28. Polaroid? Polarized? by bastardblaster · · Score: 0, Redundant

    If the author of this article doesn't know the difference between polarized lenses and Polaroid brand film, then what does that say about the trustworthyness of the article?