CNN — Astronomers have spotted what they believe to be a rainbow-like phenomenon occurring on a planet outside our solar system for the first time, and it could reveal new insights about alien worlds.
Observations from the European Space Agency’s Cheops space telescope, or Characterising ExOplanet Satellite, detected a “glory effect” on WASP-76b, an ultra-hot exoplanet 637 light-years from Earth.
Often seen on Earth, the effect consists of concentric, colorful rings of light, and it occurs when light reflects off clouds made of a uniform substance.
Beyond Earth, the glory effect had only been seen on Venus until Cheops and other missions picked up an incredibly faint signal suggesting it occurs in the atmosphere of the hellishly hot WASP-76b. Based on the signal detected by Cheops, astronomers believe the atmospheric phenomenon is directly facing Earth.
Researchers reported details of the observation April 5 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
“There’s a reason no glory has been seen before outside our Solar System — it requires very peculiar conditions,” said lead study author Olivier Demangeon, an astronomer at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, in a statement. “First, you need atmospheric particles that are close-to-perfectly spherical, completely uniform and stable enough to be observed over a long time. The planet’s nearby star needs to shine directly at it, with the observer — here Cheops — at just the right orientation.”
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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/19/world/rainbow-glory-exoplanet-scn/index.html