Scientists discover new Neptune-like planet

A group of international scientists have found a Neptune-like planet located 437 light years away from the Earth and orbits a start roughly twice as old as the sun.

Combining data from NASA’s Hubble and Splitzer space telescopes revealed an exo-planet similar to the size of Neptune relatively clear of clouds and a strong water signature. However, the planet is not a water world.

Although it is the size of Neptune, it is being referred as “warm Neptune” as it is much closer to its parent star.

NASA says the discovery of an atmosphere with this composition on this exoplanet has implications for how scientists think about the birth and development of planetary systems. Compared to Neptune and Uranus, the planets in our solar system with about the same mass, the planet is likely formed either closer to its host star or later in the development of its planetary system, or both.

Professor David Sing from the University of Exeter, whose team carried out a detailed study of the planet together with scientists from Nasa, said: “This exciting new discovery shows that there is a lot more diversity in the atmospheres of these exoplanets than we have previously thought.

“This ‘warm Neptune’ is a much smaller planet than those we have been able to characterise in depth, so this new discovery about its atmosphere feels like a big breakthrough in our pursuit to learn more about how solar systems are formed, and how it compares to our own.”

“Astronomers have just begun to investigate the atmospheres of these distant Neptune-mass planets, and almost right away, we found an example that goes against the trend in our solar system,” said Hannah Wakeford, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of the study published in the May 12, 2017, issue of Science. “This kind of unexpected result is why I really love exploring the atmospheres of alien planets.”

For a detailed report on the discovery click here.