Gas giant planet stores water in clouds

New discoveries by astronomers indicate a group of giant gas planets outside the solar system covered in water-bearing clouds.

A group of gas giant planets known as hot Jupiters. Image: ESA/Hubble/NASA.

Hot Jupiters are not as dry as previously thought, according to UPI. Data from the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes indicate that water may be hidden in the thick clouds surrounding the gas giants, which are similar to Jupiter but hotter. The discovery was published yesterday in the journal Nature.

Studying the scattered solar signatures left behind when planets pass in front of their parent stars is no easy task. But by combining observations from Hubble and Spitzer, astronomers can gain a more precise understanding of each exoplanet and its atmosphere.

"I was really excited to see this group of planets, because this is the first time we have enough wavelength information to be able to compare different characteristics between planets. We found that their atmospheres are much richer than expected," said David Sing, an astronomer at the University of Exeter, UK.

Sing and colleagues found a correlation between planets and cloudiness. While cloudless planets showed evidence of water, planets that showed no signs of water tended to have hazy atmospheres.

"In other words, planets formed in environments that were dehydrated. This forces us to completely rethink our current hypothesis about how planets form. Our results reject the arid environment hypothesis, and show that clouds hide water from view," said Jonathan Fortney, a scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, and co-author of the study.

According to VnExpress