Wasp-39b and its parent star (artist’s impression)
A team of British and American astronomers used data from several telescopes on the ground and in space — among them the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope — to study the atmosphere of the hot, bloated, Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b, about 700 light-years from Earth. The analysis of the spectrum showed a large amount of water in the exoplanet’s atmosphere — three times more than in Saturn’s atmosphere.
WASP-39b is eight times closer to its parent star, WASP-39, than Mercury is to the Sun and it takes only four days to complete an orbit.
Credit:NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
About the Image
Id: | heic1804a |
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Type: | Artwork |
Release date: | 1 March 2018, 19:00 |
Related releases: | heic1804 |
Size: | 6000 x 4800 px |
About the Object
Name: | WASP-39b |
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Type: | Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Planetary System |
Distance: | 700 light years |
Category: | Exoplanets |