Current Affairs 7th August 2017

Current Affairs 7th August 2017 - Important Points

• Exoplanet with glowing water atmosphere detected by - NASA’s Hubble

Current Affairs 7th August 2017 - Details

Exoplanet with glowing water atmosphere detected by - NASA’s Hubble

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the strongest evidence to date for a stratosphere on a planet outside solar system, WASP-121b. The stratosphere is an atmosphere layer in which temperature raises with higher altitudes.

An International team of researchers discovered this led by the University of Exeter to observe glowing water molecules in WASP-121b's atmosphere. Mark Marley who is the co-author of the study described the result as exciting, as the discovery showed that a common trait of most
of the atmospheres in our solar system, that is a warm stratosphere, can also be found in the atmospheres of exoplanets.

Speaking on the occasion Marley stated that they could now compare processes in exoplanet atmospheres with the same processes that happen under different set of conditions in our own solar system. The scientists used spectroscopy, in order to study the exoplanet’s stratosphere and to analyse how the planet's brightness changed at different wavelengths of light.
Important Highlights

• In the planet's atmosphere water vapor behaves in predictable ways in response to different wavelengths of light, depending on the water temperature.
• At lower temperatures, water vapor in the planet's upper atmosphere blocks light of particular wavelengths radiating from deeper down layers towards space.
• The water molecules in the upper atmosphere glow at the wavelengths, instead of blocking them at higher temperatures.