Scientists Found New Planet

PARIS – Two different teams of astronomy scientists reported on Wednesday the first ever detection from Earth of the atmosphere of planets outside our solar system.

Around 300 exoplanets,some of the planets may have conditions similar to life on Earth have been identified so far, though astronomers assume that far more are waiting to be discovered.

Up to now, virtually everything known about the atmosphere of exoplanets has come from data collected by the space-based Spitzer infrared telescope.However,Spitzer soon will run out of the cryogens that is needed to keep its instruments cool.

One team spotted a massive planet many times the size of Earth named OGLE-TR-56b, they called it as "hot Jupiter."

Two observations of OGLE-TR-56b were made last summer, one using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, and the other using Carnegie's own Magellan-Baade telescope, both in Chile.

In addition, it must be a clear and calm night on Earth in order accurately measure the differences in thermal emissions when the exoplanet is eclipsed as it goes behind the star.

Hot Jupiters are massive planets,many times the size of Earth , that orbit very close to their stars.

"The successful recipe is a planet that emits a lot of heat and has little-to-no wind in its atmosphere,the eclipse allows us to separate the emissions of the planet from those of the star," said co-author Mercedes Lozez-Morales of the Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C.