Transiting exoplanet HAT-P-7b (artist's impression)
July 7, 2011
This is an artist's concept of the extrasolar planet HAT-P-7b. It is a â€œhot Jupiterâ€ class planet orbiting a star that is much hotter than our Sun. For its millionth observation, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's was trained on this planet to look for the presence of water vapor and to study the planet's atmospheric structure via spectroscopy. Planets with orbits inclined nearly edge-on to Earth can be observed passing in front of and behind their stars. This allows for the planetary atmospheres to be studied by Hubble's spectrometers. Hubble's unique capabilities allow astronomers to do follow-up observations of exoplanets to characterize the composition and structure of their atmospheres.
Topics: Extrasolar planets, Astronomy, Planetary science, HAT-P-7b, HD 209458 b, Hot Jupiters, Methods of detecting extrasolar planets, Hubble Space Telescope, Planet