Researchers at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have discovered the first Jupiter-like exoplanet without clouds on its surface – read Eurekalert In a press release. WASP-62b is the second non-cloud extrasolar planet known to science.
The planet was actually found in 2012 with the WASP telescope, but at that time its atmospheric conditions were not detected. The planet, which belongs to the group of hot Jupiter planets, is 575 light-years from Earth and is half the mass of Jupiter in our solar system. But while our Jupiter orbits the Sun in about 12 years, WASP-62b only needs 4.5 days. This proximity makes your surface very hot.
New observations have detected sodium on the planet, which means no clouds in the atmosphere – if they were, then the sodium absorption lines would not be clearly noticed.
Cloudless planets are so rare, experts say, only 7 percent of exoplanets belong to them. The first one was discovered in 2018: WASP-96b is a hot Saturnian.
