Feeling the heat of an extrasolar planet.Astronomers have for the first time measured the temperature variation between the lit and unlit sides of a planet outside the solar system--a difference that's, literally, night and day. Researchers used NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope Spitzer Space Telescope: see infrared astronomy; observatory, orbiting. , which measures the heat emitted from distant objects, to study a massive extrasolar planet extrasolar planet also called exoplanet Planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. The existence of extrasolar planets, many light-years from Earth, was confirmed in 1992 with the detection of three bodies circling a pulsar. that lies 40 light-years from Earth. This so-called hot Jupiter, known as Upsilon Andromedae b Upsilon Andromedae b (occasionally referred to as Upsilon Andromedae Ab to distinguish it from the red dwarf star Upsilon Andromedae B) is an extrasolar planet orbiting the Sun-like star Upsilon Andromedae A every 4.62 days. Discovered in 1996 by Geoffrey Marcy and R. , orbits its parent star at only about a tenth of the distance that Mercury resides from the sun. Joe Harrington of the University of Central Florida “UCF” redirects here. For other uses, see UCF (disambiguation). UCF is a member institution of the State University System of Florida. UCF was founded in 1963 as Florida Technological University with the goal of providing highly trained personnel to support the Kennedy in Orlando and his colleagues found that the temperature difference between the icy, dark side and the fiery, bright side of the planet is about 1,400[degrees]C. The huge variation comes about, the researchers theorize the·o·rize v. the·o·rized, the·o·riz·ing, the·o·riz·es v.intr. To formulate theories or a theory; speculate. v.tr. To propose a theory about. , because one side of the planet always faces toward its star, while the other side faces away. The same side of the moon likewise always faces Earth. Unlike the moon, however, Upsilon Andromedae bis a giant ball of gas. Harrington and his collaborators describe their study online and in an upcoming Science. --R.C. |
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