I’m affiliated with the space program in a shirt-tail sense because the Ashima Group (that I’m affiliated with in their devices division), and more particularly, Ashima Research designed the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) that is on Mars now as a component of the Mars Science Laboratory. The Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB), a joint center of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas – Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (CSIC-INTA), built the weather monitoring station that Ashima designed and it was contributed by the Spanish government as part of the European Space Agency’s contribution to the effort. More on Mars climate.
Kepler 7B (left) Jupiter (right)

So it has been with some interest that I’ve been following the first cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system develop. Kepler 7B is a Jupiter like world that has been the focus of efforts from NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes. The technical paper is online at:

The planet is marked by high clouds in the west and clear skies in the east. Previous studies from Spitzer have resulted in temperature maps of planets orbiting other stars, but this is the first look at cloud structures on a distant world.

“By observing this planet with Spitzer and Kepler for more than three years, we were able to produce a very low-resolution ‘map’ of this giant, gaseous planet,” said Brice-Olivier Demory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Demory is lead author of a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “We wouldn’t expect to see oceans or continents on this type of world, but we detected a clear, reflective signature that we interpreted as clouds.”

Kepler has discovered more than 150 exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, and Kepler-7b was one of the first. The telescope’s problematic reaction wheels prevent it from hunting planets any more, but astronomers continue to pore over almost four years’ worth of collected data. Kepler identified planets by watching for dips in starlight that occur as the planets transit, or pass in front of their stars, blocking the light. This technique and other observations of Kepler-7b previously revealed that it is one of the puffiest planets known: if it could somehow be placed in a tub of water, it would float. The planet was also found to whip around its star in just less than five days.
Kepler’s visible-light observations of Kepler-7b’s moon-like phases led to a rough map of the planet that showed a bright spot on its western hemisphere. But these data were not enough on their own to decipher whether the bright spot was coming from clouds or heat. The Spitzer Space Telescope played a crucial role in answering this question.
Like Kepler, Spitzer can fix its gaze at a star system as a planet orbits around the star, gathering clues about the planet’s atmosphere. Spitzer’s ability to detect infrared light means it was able to measure Kepler-7b’s temperature, estimating it to be between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 and 1,300 Kelvin). This is relatively cool for a planet that orbits so close to its star — within 0.06 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the distance from Earth and the sun) — and, according to astronomers, too cool to be the source of light Kepler observed. Instead, they determined, light from the planet’s star is bouncing off cloud tops located on the west side of the planet.

Reference: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2013, September 30). First cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2013/09/130930210823.htm

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Dang… around the star in five days? And here I thought a year went by fast for me here. Of course, if I were there the length of the year would be the least of my problems.

    When I was a boy I was positive that I would visit a strange new planet when I grew up. I didn't realize that alien world would actually be Earth.

  6. I think that it's still looking at things. I don't know if there are people to interpret the data today while everyone's favorite Negro had his wingtips up on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

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