https://www.afinalwarning.com/503685.html (Natural News) Scientists thought that GJ 1132 b, a distant exoplanet discovered in 2015, lost its atmosphere. But now it seems that it has formed itself a new one. The gases of this new atmosphere suggest a volcanic origin as well.
Scientists at the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration‘s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory made the discovery after examining existing observations of GJ 1132 b with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). They gathered the data back in 2017.
Raissa Estrela, a postdoctoral fellow at the lab who was part of the research team, said their finding was “super exciting” because the planet’s atmosphere could be a new or a secondary one.
March 16, 2021
The Hubble Space Telescope recently garnered headlines for a software anomaly that caused the iconic observatory to enter safe mode as its control teams worked to successfully restore the telescope to operational status.
While Hubble is showing its age, scientists using the observatory are nonetheless continuing to produce incredible scientific discoveries, including a recent announcement surrounding an exoplanet 41 light years away that is on its second atmosphere.
Hubble issues
Now 12 years on from that final servicing mission, the telescope is showing its age again, most recently with a safe mode event that occurred on Sunday, 7 March at 04:00 EST/09:00 UTC when a software error was detected inside the telescope’s main computer.
NASA s Hubble Find Close Rocky Planet With Tantalizing Parallels To Earth —And It s Coming Back From The Dead forbes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forbes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Having Lost Its Original Atmosphere, This Freaky Planet Is Now Growing a New One
Image: NASA/ESA/R. Hurt (IPAC/Caltech)
Who says you can’t lose your atmosphere to a nearby red dwarf and then grow a new one with the help of volcanic activity? This resilient planet, located 41 light-years from Earth, appears to be thriving again after a rough encounter with its host star.
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Exoplanet GJ 1132 b is both similar to and very different from Earth. Sure, it’s several times wider than our planet, but both worlds share similar densities and atmospheric pressures, and both popped into existence approximately 4.5 billion years ago. And like our planet, it started off hot, with an atmosphere rich in hydrogen, and then gradually cooled down.
The planet’s current atmosphere is reportedly suspected to be a product of volcanic activity, likely affected by the relationship between the planet and its host star.