The exoplanet found an atmosphere and water

In the atmosphere of this planet, in addition to hydrogen and helium, water is present.

Planet HAT-P-26b in the constellation Virgo was covered with an atmosphere of hydrogen, helium and water vapor.

Such conclusions scientists from the UK and the USA made on the basis of data obtained from space telescopes Hubble and Spitzer.

Exoplanets that are of Earth at a distance of 430 light-years, also called “warm Neptune” due to the similarity of its size with the size of the eighth planet of the Solar system. But HAT-P-26b is located much closer to its star and one revolution around the planet makes it over the 4.23 day.

“Astronomers have only begun to explore the atmospheres of these distant planets Naturopathy, and almost immediately, we found an example that goes against the trend in our Solar system,” says one of the researchers, Hannah, Oakford from the Center Goddard at NASA.

On the basis of spectral analysis, researchers found that in the atmosphere of this planet, in addition to hydrogen and helium, water is present. In addition, the researchers were able to estimate the metallicity of HAT-P-26b — so astronomers call the relative content of chemical elements heavier than helium.

It turned out that the composition of HAT-P-26b is much closer to Jupiter than Uranus or Neptune. This, in turn, means that the planet has the atmosphere, which occurred rather late in the formation of the heavenly bodies.

“This analysis shows that there is much more diversity in the atmospheres of these exoplanets than we expected, which provides an understanding of how planets can form and evolve differently than in our Solar system,” said David Singh of the University of Exeter in the UK.

paradox