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Astronomers discover "weird" Neptune-like exoplanet that could have water clouds - CBS News

Astronomers discover "weird" Neptune-like exoplanet that could have water clouds - CBS News

Astronomers discover
Jun 11, 2021 1 min, 26 secs

Astronomers have spotted a planet 90 light years away from Earth with a surprising atmosphere — and the possibility of clouds containing water. .

"Imagine an Earth-like planet passing in front of a star the size of the sun, it's going to block out a tiny bit of light; but if it's passing in front of a star that's a lot smaller, the proportion of light that's blocked out will be larger," scientists said.

Astronomers determined that TOI-1231 b is "oddly reminiscent" of Neptune, both in both size and density, leading them to believe it is also gaseous — not rocky, like Earth.

"Even though TOI 1231 b is eight times closer to its star than the Earth is to the sun, its temperature is similar to that of Earth, thanks to its cooler and less bright host star," said study co-author Diana Dragomir.

"However, the planet itself is actually larger than Earth and a little bit smaller than Neptune – we could call it a sub-Neptune.".

Prior research suggests that planets with such a low temperature could have clouds in their atmosphere.

"TOI-1231 b is one of the only other planets we know of in a similar size and temperature range, so future observations of this new planet will let us determine just how common (or rare) it is for water clouds to form around these temperate worlds," Burt said. 

It's moving away from Earth at such a high speed that researchers can easily detect hydrogen atoms escaping from its atmosphere — like a tail trailing behind the planet. 

"They're full of planets between the size of Earth and Neptune on orbits much shorter than Mercury's, so we don't have any local examples to compare them to."

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