One of the sections in our assigned reading tonight covered extrasolar planets. It reminded me about HD 189733b, an extrasolar planet I researched during first block, and one of the wildest things I’ve learned about at any level of physics.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

HD 189733b was discovered in 2005, orbiting its host star about 63 light years away from Earth. Using the Hubble Space Telescope to conduct spectroscopy on the exoplanet, researchers determined the planet to be blue, since a drop in blue light was detected whenever HD 189733b would pass in front of the host star. Naturally, a blue planet draws comparisons to Earth, but nothing else about the two planets are remotely comparable.

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/hd189733/

For starters, the blue color comes not from water, but from a high concentration of silicate in the atmosphere. Furthermore, HD 189733b does not spin about its axis, so there is no day and night. The side facing the host star cooks perpetually at a temperature around 1800°F, baking the silicate into a molten glass cloud straight out of a sci-fi movie. Since the dark side never receives any heat, the vast temperature differences result in incomprehensible wind speeds exceeding 4000 MPH, whipping the molten glass across the planet’s surface

It is safe to say that HD 189733b does not support the alien life that many humans are obsessively searching for. However, the detail to which astronomers have been able to discern the activity on the surface of this planet should be encouraging to anyone interested in the exploration of outer space.

Sources and Further Reading:

http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-hubble-finds-a-true-blue-planet/#.UzI7EYVTry0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_189733_b

http://www.space.com/22614-blue-alien-planet-glass-rain.html