It's probably best to say right from the beginning here, even the Hubble telescope isn't powerful enough to photograph a postcard-perfect sunset on an extrasolar planet.
But scientists have used it to take detailed atmospheric measurements of a far-distant Jupiter-like planet in orbit around a star a little smaller than our own sun.
As the planet passed in front of its home star – a point known as "transit" – researchers were able to look at the light from the star as it passed through the planet's atmosphere. Different gases interact with the light in different ways, allowing scientists to understand much about the composition of the atmosphere.
In this case, scientists had expected to see sodium, potassium and water – but saw none of the three. Instead, a high haze, probably consisting of iron, silicates and aluminum oxide dust, was apparent.
Researchers compared the view to a "gorgeous red sunset over Athens" –
which, given the circumstances, may not say much about their opinion of the Greek city.
Last week, another team announced they had made the first measurements of an extrasolar planetary atmosphere using a ground-based telescope.
Some of the facilities for doing this with Hubble are apparently no longer working, but today's news shows that the space telescope's eagle eyes remain incredibly sharp.
(Image: Star field showing the star system holding the Athens-like planet (The star, HD 189733, is the bright one in the center). The bright spot at the right is the planetary nebula Messier 27. Credit:
NASA, ESA, and the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De
Martin (ESA/Hubble) )
