Found a Jupiter-like planet with a completely different atmosphere

The gas giant, named WASP-62b, was first discovered in 2012 by the southern Wide Angle Search for Planets.

(WASP). This is a telescope designed to detect exoplanets. The search is carried out using the transit method. However until now its atmosphere has not been closely studied. 

Known as "hot Jupiter", WASP-62blies 575 light-years from Earth and is about half the mass of Jupiter in our solar system. However, unlike it, which takes about 12 years to orbit the Sun, WASP-62b orbits its star in just four and a half days. This proximity to the star heats the planet to extreme temperatures, hence the name "hot Jupiter."

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, MunazzaAlam, a graduate student at the Center for Astrophysics who led the study, recorded observations of the planet using spectroscopy. Alam specifically observed WASP-62b as the planet passed in front of its star three times. The goal is to make visible-light observations that can detect sodium and potassium in the planet's atmosphere.

Although there was no sign of potassium, the presence of sodiumwas startlingly obvious. The team was able to view the complete sodium absorption lines in their data. Alam explains that clouds or haze in the atmosphere will completely obscure the trace of sodium, and astronomers can usually discern only small hints of its presence. So scientists realized that they see an absolutely clean atmosphere. Despite the fact that WASP-62b is very similar to Jupiter, their atmospheres are completely different.

It is worth noting that cloudless planetsextremely rare. According to recent research, less than 7% of exoplanets have a clean atmosphere. For example, the first and only known exoplanet with a clean atmosphere was discovered only in 2018. Object WASP-96b, it is classified as a hot Saturn.

Astronomers believe that the study of exoplanets witha cloudless atmosphere can lead to a better understanding of how they formed. Their rarity "suggests that something else is happening, or that they formed differently than most planets," Alam explains. A clean atmosphere also makes it easier to study the chemical composition of planets, which helps determine what it is made of.

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