NASA finds dazzling blue planet 63 light years away… and it rains glass there

Blue Alien Planet

The NASA Hubble space telescope recently discovered a dazzling blue planet that at first appeared to be a world booming with water and life. Unfortunately, after more investigation, that turned out to not be the case, as this new world is a gas giant that rains glass (yes, it literally rains glass due to extreme temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees C). Not that it matters; we won’t get our hands on this alien world any time soon as the planet is 63 light years away from Earth.

Astronomers claim this is the first time the true color of an exoplanet outside our own solar system has been determined. The interesting thing about this planet, which scientists are calling HD 189733b, is that it rains glass sideways. Now, we have never heard a planet raining glass before, especially one that rains from a sideway spiral. Furthermore, HD 189733b is extremely hot, so one should not expect to find any form of life on the surface.

Despite the technological advancements of the Hubble space telescope, it was not able to detect the color of the planet without help. Scientists had to resort to measuring the color of light and its changes to pinpoint the blue color of this new Alien world.

“We saw the light becoming less bright in the blue but not in the green or red. Light was missing in the blue but not in the red when it was hidden,” said University of Exeter in South West England researcher, Frederic Pont.

While this is a great find by NASA, it is not truly exciting, as the world would rather hear news of a planet that is quite similar to earth that has room for life. I guess we’ll just have to continue watching movies of Alien worlds a little bit longer before the real thing come knocking at our doors.

[via The Economic Times]

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