"Super-Earth" Exoplanet Reveals The secrets Of its Atmosphere

This is because it revolves very close to its star that "55 Cancri e" has delivered the secrets of the composition of its atmosphere. Totally unbearable.

For the first time, scientists have seen through the secrets of the atmosphere of an exoplanet from the category of "Super-Earths". The classification includes the terrestrial planets smaller than gas giants, but much larger than our world. Located 40 light years from us, 55 Cancri e is eight times the mass of Earth.

An international team led by the Univesity College London (UCL) was able to determine through the data the Hubble telescope of NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) the composition of the atmosphere of the planet. The instrument "Wide filed Camera 3" (wide field camera onboard the Space Telescope) allowed, during the transit of 55 Cancri e in front of its star, to obtain spectral information and analyze the visible and invisible light ( ultraviolet, infrared) reflected by the gaseous envelope.

55 Cancri e, a saturated hell cyanide

The super-Earth 55 Cancri e has several interesting features. The most remarkable is that it evolves very close to its sun, which allowed the observation of its atmosphere through new techniques.

"It's very exciting because this is the first time we were able to analyze the spectral signature showing what gases are present in the atmosphere of this super-Earth," enthuses Angelos Tsiaras, PhD student at UCL said in the statement from the British university. "Our observations suggest that the planet is surrounded by a significant proportion of hydrogen and helium initially formed after the nebula," he continues.

55 Cancri e is a very different world from ours. It makes a complete revolution around the star in just 18 hours. The temperature at the surface is of 2000 ° Celsius. And the atmosphere in addition to the helium shows traces of hydrogen cyanide. "The hydrogen cyanide and prussic acid are highly toxic. It's probably not a planet where he would live" says Johnathan Tennyson, also from UCL.