Hello All!   
      
   NASA Space Telescope Sees the Light from an Alien Super-Earth    
      
   May 8, 2012:  NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from   
   a "super-Earth" beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet   
   is not habitable, the detection is a historic step toward the eventual search   
   for signs of life on other planets.    
      
   "Spitzer has amazed us yet again," said Bill Danchi, Spitzer program scientist   
   at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The spacecraft is pioneering the study of   
   atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA's upcoming James   
   Webb Space Telescope to apply a similar technique on potentially habitable   
   planets."    
      
   The planet, called 55 Cancri e, falls into a class of planets termed super   
   Earths, which are more massive than our home world but lighter than giant   
   planets like Neptune. The planet is about twice as big and eight times as   
   massive as Earth. It orbits a bright star, called 55 Cancri, in a mere 18   
   hours.    
      
   http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=142987031   
      
   An artist's concept of 55 Cancri e, a toasty "super-Earth" that rushes around   
   its star every 18 hours. [video] [more]    
      
   Previously, Spitzer and other telescopes were able to study the planet by   
   analyzing how the light from 55 Cancri changed as the planet passed in front   
   of the star. In the new study, Spitzer measured how much infrared light comes   
   from the planet itself. The results reveal the planet is likely dark, and its   
   sun-facing side is more than 2,000 Kelvin (3,140 degrees Fahrenheit), hot   
   enough to melt metal.    
      
   The new information is consistent with a prior theory that 55 Cancri e is a   
   water world: a rocky core surrounded by a layer of water in a "supercritical"   
   state where it is both liquid and gas, and topped by a blanket of steam:   
   video.    
      
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_CZCmJ2om0   
      
   "It could be very similar to Neptune, if you pulled Neptune in toward our sun   
   and watched its atmosphere boil away," said Micha‰l Gillon of Universit‚ de   
   LiŠge in Belgium, principal investigator of the research, which appears in the   
   Astrophysical Journal. The lead author is Brice-Olivier Demory of the   
   Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.    
      
   The 55 Cancri system is relatively close to Earth, at 41 light-years away. It   
   has five planets, with 55 Cancri e the closest to the star and tidally locked,   
   so one side always faces the star. Spitzer discovered the sun-facing side is   
   extremely hot, indicating the planet probably does not have a substantial   
   atmosphere to carry the sun's heat to the unlit side.    
      
   http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/pia15621.html   
      
   The plot shows how the infrared light from the 55 Cancri system, both the star   
   and planet, changed as the planet passed behind its star. When the planet   
   disappeared, the total light dropped, and then increased back to normal levels   
   as the planet circled back into view. The drop indicated how much light came   
   directly from the planet itself. This type of information is important for   
   studying the temperatures and compositions of planetary atmospheres beyond our   
   own. [more]    
      
   NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2018, likely will be   
   able to learn even more about the planet's composition. The telescope might be   
   able to use a similar infrared method to Spitzer to search other potentially   
   habitable planets for signs of molecules possibly related to life.    
      
   "When we conceived of Spitzer more than 40 years ago, exoplanets hadn't even   
   been discovered," said Michael Werner, Spitzer project scientist at NASA's Jet   
   Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Because Spitzer was built very   
   well, it's been able to adapt to this new field and make historic advances   
   such as this."    
      
   In 2005, Spitzer became the first telescope to detect light from a planet   
   beyond our solar system. To the surprise of many, the observatory saw the   
   infrared light of a "hot Jupiter," a gaseous planet much larger than the solid   
   55 Cancri e. Since then, other telescopes, including NASA's Hubble and Kepler   
   space telescopes, have performed similar feats with gas giants using the same   
   method. This marks the first time, however, that light from a super-Earth has   
   been detected.    
      
   For more information about 55 Cancri e, please see the ScienceCast video   
   Rethinking an Alien World.    
      
   Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
      
   More Information    
   During Spitzer's ongoing extended mission, steps were taken to enhance its   
   unique ability to see exoplanets, including 55 Cancri e. Those steps, which   
   included changing the cycling of a heater and using an instrument in a new   
   way, led to improvements in how precisely the telescope points at targets.    
   JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission   
   Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer   
   Science Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in   
   Pasadena. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the   
   Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for   
   NASA.    
      
   For more information about Spitzer, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer and   
   http://spitzer.caltech.edu/ . More information about exoplanets and NASA's   
   planet-finding program is at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov .    
       
      
      
   Regards,   
      
   Roger    
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LA - (1:3828/7)