Super-Earth may have water-rich atmosphere - Indian Express

PTI : Washington, Wed Sep 04 2013, 14:46 hrs Super-Earths are emerging as a new type of exoplanet with a mass, radius larger than the Earth's. (Thinkstock) Blue light observations of a super-Earth - 40 light years from our planet – have indicated that it may have a water-rich atmosphere, astronomers say. Japanese astronomers and planetary scientists used Subaru Telescope's two optical cameras, Suprime-Cam and the Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS), with a blue transmission filter to observe planetary transits of super-Earth GJ 1214 b (Gilese 1214 b). The team investigated whether this planet has an atmosphere rich in water or hydrogen. The Subaru observations show that the sky of this planet does not show a strong Rayleigh scattering feature, which a cloudless hydrogen-dominated atmosphere would predict. When combined with the findings of previous observations in other colours, this new observational result implies that GJ 1214 b is likely to have a water-rich atmosphere. Super-Earths are emerging as a new type of exoplanet with a mass and radius larger than the Earth's but less than those of ice giants in our Solar System, such as Uranus or Neptune. Scientists focused their efforts on investigating the atmospheric features of a well known super-Earth, GJ 1214 b, located 40 light years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus, northwest of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The team's research examined features of light scattering of GJ 1214 b's transit around its star. Current theory posits that a planet develops in a disk of dense gas surrounding a newly formed star. The element hydrogen is a major component of a protoplanetary disk, and water ice is abundant in an outer region beyond a so-called "snow line." Findings about where super-Earths have formed and how they have migrated to their current orbits point to the prediction that hydrogen or water vapour is a major atmospheric component of a super-Earth, researchers said. Planetary transits enable scientists to investigate changes in the wavelength in the brightness of the star (transit depth), which indicate the planet's atmospheric composition. ... contd. ALSO READ Tweeters beware: You are leaving your footprints behind! Review: Samsung Galaxy Mega smartphone is huge, with limited appeal Coming soon! New Android mobile software 'Google KitKat' September 10 Apple Inc. event fuels talk of new iPhone launch Please read our terms of use before posting comments TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s). via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGcqcPWB2po5S9YbCuljtpG7P2mLw&url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/superearth-may-have-waterrich-atmosphere/1164506/

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