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posted by martyb on Friday May 04 2018, @12:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the light-weight-investigation dept.

Astronomers have made the first-ever detection of helium in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. Infrared light from the host star was observed passing through the upper atmosphere, rather than optical or ultraviolet light as most atmospheric studies have used:

In a new study [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0067-5] [DX] published May 2 in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers used a novel technique to probe the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-107b, resulting in the first-ever detection of helium in the air of an alien world.

"Helium is the second-most common element in the universe after hydrogen. It is also one of the main constituents of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system," said lead author Jessica Spake of the University of Exeter, in a press release. "However, up until now, helium had not been detected on exoplanets — despite searches for it."

Furthermore, the helium signal the researchers discovered was so strong that they think the planet's upper atmosphere may stretch many thousands of miles into space, making it susceptible to erosion through intense stellar winds. According to the study, this wind-induced erosion is also likely creating an extended, comet-like tail of gas around the exoplanet, which causes the planet to shed up to 4 percent of its total mass every billion years.

WASP-107b, a hot gas giant, contains 0.12 Jupiter masses in a volume of about 0.94 Jupiter radii, making it one of the least dense planets known.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @02:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @02:08AM (#675942)

    The apparent size of the planet is due to their huge orbital infrastrucure, the helium is waste from their fusion reactors. Probably also used as reaction mass in their nuclear rockets.