COLLECTION NAME:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Record
Title:
Light From A Distant Planet
Explanation:
Light emitted by a planet far beyond our Solar System [ http://www.nineplan… ] has been identified for the first time. The planet, illustrated in the above drawing [ http://www.spitzer.… ], had its light detected by comparing the brightness of only the parent star, when the planet was behind [ http://antwrp.gsfc.… ] the star, to the light emitted when both the planet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.… ] and its parent star were visible. The Earth-trailing [ http://www.spitzer.… ] Spitzer Space Telescope [ http://www.spitzer.… ] made the observation in infrared light [ http://imagers.gsfc… ], where the intrinsic glow of the planet outshines the light it reflects from its central star. The direct observation [ http://arxiv.org/ab… ] of light allowed a measurement of both the temperature and size of the planet: HD 209458 [ http://www.obspm.fr… ]b. Planet HD 209458b was confirmed to be larger than expected for its mass and on an orbit around its parent star that was unexpectedly close to a circle [ http://www.engr.umd… ].
Credit and Copyright:
R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech [ http://ssc.spitzer.… ]), JPL-Caltech [ http://www.jpl.nasa… ], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov… ]
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_what:
Earth
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap050405
Link To Source
