HUBBLE MEASURES ATMOSPHERE ON WORLD AROUND ANOTHER STAR

NASANews@hq.nasa.gov
An extract from RELEASE: 01-232

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have made the first direct detection and chemical analysis of the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. Their unique observations demonstrate it is possible with Hubble and other telescopes to measure the chemical makeup of extrasolar planets' atmospheres and potentially to search for chemical markers of life beyond Earth.

The planet orbits a yellow, Sun-like star called HD 209458, a seventh-magnitude star (visible in an amateur telescope) that lies 150 light-years away in the autumn constellation Pegasus. Its atmospheric composition was probed when the planet passed in front of its parent star, allowing astronomers for the first time ever to see light from the star filtered through the planet's atmosphere.