WASP 62-B

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On 22 January 2021, Astronomers of Harvard-Smithsonian center for astrophysics have found a cloudless Jupiter like planet named WASP-62b. This was second time astronomers found a cloudless planet. It is also a gas-giant like Jupiter. It is also known as Hot-Jupiter. It is 575 light years away from us. Our Jupiter takes 12 years to orbit the sun but WASP-62b takes only four and a half day to orbit its star. Its mass is only the half of our Jupiter. The star makes it extremely hot which is why it is also known as the "hot Jupiter. Life is not supported on this planet. " Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, used Hubble space telescope to record data and observe the planet using spectroscopy. The Hubble space telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was launched in low earth orbit in 1990. It was one of the largest and most versatile telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of  NASA’s great observatories. It is very powerful telescope. The study of electromagnetic radiations to help detect chemical elements.

Munazza Alam, a graduate student at the Center for Astrophysics who led the study, said, “For my thesis, I have been working on exoplanet characterization. I take discovered planets, and I follow up on them to characterize their atmospheres.” Cloud free planets are very rare. Less than 7 percent of exoplanets have clear atmospheres. For example first and only other exoplanet with clear atmosphere was discovered in 2018 named WASP-96b, classified as hot Saturn. Clear Atmosphere makes it easier to study the chemical composition of a planet, which can help to find how the planet is formed. And according to astronomers, studying exoplanets with cloudless atmospheres can lead to a better understanding of how they were formed.  It was first detected in 2012 using Wide Angle Search for Plants (WASP) south survey, hence named WASP-62b. WASP or Wide Angle Search for Planets is an international consortium of  several academic   organization performing ultra  wide angle search for exoplanets using transit photometry. 

                                                                                           

It is Cloudless

According to Alam, Astronomers get only some clues that sodium is present so this was ‘smoking gun evidence’ of a cloudless planet. Alam specifically monitored WASP-62b as it is swept in front of its host star three times making visible light observations, which can detect sodium and potassium in a planet’s atmosphere.  According to researchers, while there was no evidence of potassium, sodium presence was clear and the team was able to view the full sodium absorption line in there date. Cloudless planets rarity “suggests something else is going on or they formed in a different way than most planets,” Alam says. With the launch of James Webb Space Telescope later this year, the team hopes to have new opportunities to study and better understand wasp-62b. The telescope improved new technologies, like higher resolution and better precision should help them probe the atmosphere even closer to search for the presence of more elements, such as silicon.                                             -Shiv Yadav