NASA discovers pink planet orbiting a sun... -
Astronomers at Nasa have discovered a pink alien planet orbiting a star like our sun 57 light-years away that they said is the smallest by mass photographed so far.
Scientists believe the planet, GJ 504b, is thought to be a magenta colour, based on infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.
While GJ 504b is the the lowest-mass planet ever detected around a star using direct imaging techniques, but it is still several times the mass of Jupiter and similar in size.
Michael McElwain, a member of the discovery team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, said: 'If we could travel to this giant planet, we would see a world still glowing from the heat of its formation with a color reminiscent of a dark cherry blossom, a dull magenta.'
'Our near-infrared camera reveals that its color is much more blue than other imaged planets, which may indicate that its atmosphere has fewer clouds.'
GJ 504b orbits its star at nearly nine times the distance Jupiter orbits the sun, which poses a challenge to theoretical ideas of how giant planets form.
According to the most widely accepted theory, called the core-accretion model, Jupiter-like planets begin their life in the gas-rich debris disk that surrounds a young star, Francis Reddy of Nasa explained.
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Astronomers at Nasa have discovered a pink alien planet orbiting a star like our sun 57 light-years away that they said is the smallest by mass photographed so far.
Scientists believe the planet, GJ 504b, is thought to be a magenta colour, based on infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.
While GJ 504b is the the lowest-mass planet ever detected around a star using direct imaging techniques, but it is still several times the mass of Jupiter and similar in size.
Michael McElwain, a member of the discovery team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, said: 'If we could travel to this giant planet, we would see a world still glowing from the heat of its formation with a color reminiscent of a dark cherry blossom, a dull magenta.'
'Our near-infrared camera reveals that its color is much more blue than other imaged planets, which may indicate that its atmosphere has fewer clouds.'
GJ 504b orbits its star at nearly nine times the distance Jupiter orbits the sun, which poses a challenge to theoretical ideas of how giant planets form.
According to the most widely accepted theory, called the core-accretion model, Jupiter-like planets begin their life in the gas-rich debris disk that surrounds a young star, Francis Reddy of Nasa explained.
Read more: -
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