Scientists Awed at Light that Bounced Off on Exoplanet

Astronomers have recently managed to view a visible spectrum of light coming from an exoplanet which will be useful to know more about its existence as reported by LA Times news.

These wonderful findings were published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal which paves the way to study more on the exoplanets.  This also means that they no longer need to wait for a transiting planet or one that passes on its own host star.

Jorge Martins, the lead author of the publication and astronomer at Portugal's University of Porto was extremely happy on the findings.  He is currently finishing his PhD while visiting Chile's European Southern Observatory (ESO).  He also said that the observation of the planet was awesome since from a distance of 3 million times compared to the distance of the sun to earth, they were able to view a reflected light of the exoplanet.

Since the discovery of 51 Pegasi b in 1995, there were many other exoplanets that were found but there is little information about them like its radius, temperature and atmosphere.  Much of the data gathered relies on the exoplanet when it transits in front of its main star to block a bit of light which allows a small amount to enter its atmosphere.

According to Martins, this little reflected light will definitely help the astronomers to study its mass, orbit and how its gravity tugs on its star.  They used the HARPS powerful instrument at La Silla Observatory in order to see the quite faint reflection that bounced back from the exoplanet.  They were also able to estimate the reflectivity of the planet which is useful to know the planet's atmosphere and surface.

This wonderful discovery by astronomers has given them hope on proving that there are more exoplanets that exists and there are ways to learn more about them which will prove useful in future studies.