WillGater.com – The blog and website of astronomy writer Will Gater

Here is the latest release from the ESA/Hubble office that I have been working on. Hubble astronomers have used the orbiting space observatory to study the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet HD189733b (a number I can’t seem to get out of my head having written it so many times over the past few weeks). This world had previously been observed by the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope but now Hubble has shown that it actually has a layer of hazes in its upper atmosphere made up of tiny grains of (probably) silicates, iron and aluminum oxide. To read the full press release visit the ESA/Hubble website and of course there is the latest episode of the Hubblecast out where Dr J talks to the head of the ESA/Hubble group Dr Bob Fosbury about this amazing world.

Image credit: ESA, NASA and Frédéric Pont (Geneva University Observatory)