Light glowing from a "super-Earth" planet beyond our solar
system has been detected by Nasa’s Spitzer Telescope. Until now,
scientists have never been able to detect infrared light
emanating from 55 Cancri E, a super-hot extrasolar planet twice
the size and eight times the mass of our own. 55 Cancri E is one
of five exoplanets orbiting a bright star named 55 Cancri in a
solar system lying in the constellation of Cancer (The Crab).
Previously, Spitzer and other telescopes were able to study the
planet by observing how the light from 55 Cancri changed as the
planet passed in front of the star. In the new study, Spitzer
instead measured how much infrared light came from the planet
itself – revealing some of the planet’s major features. At
41-light years from Earth, the giant planet is considered
uninhabitable. The giant planet is tidally locked, so one side
always faces the star. The telescope found that the sun-facing
side is extremely hot, indicating the planet probably does not
have a substantial atmosphere t