Alien Planet's Hot, Evaporating Atmosphere Revealed The
atmosphere of a Jupiter-size planet outside of our solar system
is dissolving faster than anticipated thanks to its parent star,
a new study finds. For the first time, scientists are able to
measure an excited state of hydrogen on an exoplanet, revealing
a temperature more than 10 times what they had expected. The
findings could help astronomers understand how life might evolve
on alien planets around one of the most abundant types of stars
in the galaxy. "Our result is the first time in which we've been
able to directly put a 'thermometer' to this hydrogen," said
primary investigator Adam Jensen of Wesleyan University in
Middletown, Conn. Bleeding out its atmosphere The planet HD
189733b orbits 10 times closer to its star than Mercury is to
the sun. As a result, the alien world keenly feels the violent
effects from its parent star. [The Strangest Alien Planets]
Based on HD 189733b's distance from its star, which is cooler
and smaller than the sun, astro