HAT-P-11b was discovered using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data.
Astronomers have discovered and verified
more than 5000 planets outside of our solar system, with an additional 8,288
probable candidates. Until today, However , no magnetic fields surrounding any
of these exoplanets had been identified. Astronomers from NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL), the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), and several other
institutions and universities presented their results in Nature Astronomy.
HAT-P-11b is an exoplanet about the size of
Neptune that circles HAT-P-11, a K-type (orange dwarf) star discovered 123
light-years distant from Earth. They discovered it using a method known as
Transit Spectroscopy, or the Transit Method, in which a periodic drop in the
brightness of a star signals the passage of a planet in front of it. It is used
to find exoplanets and learn about their atmospheres.
Hubble detected HAT-P-11b in the
ultraviolet spectrum performing six transits around the HAT-P-11 star. It also
identified carbon ions in the atmosphere, which the researchers argue is most
likely due to the presence of a magnetosphere.
"This is the first time the signature
of an exoplanet's magnetic field has been directly detected on a planet outside
our solar system. A strong magnetic field on a planet like Earth can protect
its atmosphere and surface from direct bombardment of the energetic particles
that make up the solar wind. These processes heavily affect the evolution of
life on a planet like Earth because the magnetic field shelters organisms from
these energetic particles," said Gilda Ballester, a co-author of the
paper.
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