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The temperature of the upper layers of its atmosphere is about 800 degrees, which complicates life.
Scientists have talked about the discovery of water on the planet in the HR 8799 star system using the Keck telescope.
Exoplanet HR 8799 dot c – a gas giant 7 times bigger than our own Jupiter. In the atmosphere of the planet are water and no methane, writes the online edition of Chronicle.info with reference to nv.ua.
The new observations combine two telescopic technologies in the Keck Observatory. The first is adaptive optics. It eliminates the blur effect created by the Earth's atmosphere. The second is the NIRSPEC high-resolution spectrometer, which works in infrared light.
Until now, astronomers have directly photographed more than a dozen exoplanets. The HR 8799 dot system is the first system with several planets, photographed directly with a new look. But the picture is only the first step of this study.
The images can be analyzed to determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Here is the spectroscopy. In this case, the main possibilities of the instrument NIRSPEC on the telescope Keck 2, which operates in the infrared band L.
By combining the L-band spectral imaging with adaptive optics, scientists have overcome the difficulty of observing the planet. They were able to perform the most accurate measurements on the planet, confirming the presence of water and the absence of methane.
"This type of technology is exactly what we want to use in the future to look for signs of life on a planet like Earth. We are not there yet, but we are going forward, "said Dimitri Mau, associate professor of astronomy and co-author of a new study.
The discovery does not mean the indispensable presence on the planet HR 8799c Oceans. The temperature of the upper layers of its atmosphere is about 800 degrees, which complicates life. While we are talking about water vapor. However, the discovery of water is remarkable, but even more impressive, the very possibility of such a discovery.
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