![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() According to NASA, they are the most common type of planet in the galaxy, although none exist in our solar system. Planets such as GJ 1214b are often referred to as mini-Neptune planets because they're smaller than Neptune but with a similar atmospheric makeup. The James Webb Space Telescope recently helped to reveal new information about the planet, formally named GJ 1214b. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, and methane. It's made of a thick fog of water, ammonia, and methane over an Earth-sized solid center. It's more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth is. "This is going to point us toward a lot of further studies to try to understand what those hazes could be." This artist's concept depicts the planet GJ 1214 b, a "mini-Neptune" with what is likely a steamy, hazy atmosphere. It's the last of the planets in our solar system. It's bright, it's reflective and that's confusing and surprising," Kempton said, according to the University of Maryland. "Whatever is making up the hazes or clouds is not what we expected. It is the fourth-largest planet in terms of diameter, the third-most. Eliza Kempton, an associate professor of Astronomy at the University of Maryland and lead author of the study, said she's been trying to get a clearer picture of the planet for more than a decade. Neptune is the eighth and also the farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The distant planet, which is outside of our solar system about 40 light-years away, is totally covered in a deep haze that has made it difficult to study since it was first discovered in late 2009, researchers said. Voyager 2 also made the definitive observations of the planet’s rings and saw storms. A strange planet that's stymied astronomers for years has an "unusually shiny atmosphere" and could be home to large amounts of water vapor, scientists said in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Its instruments measured an atmospheric temperature of -220 degrees Celsius (-360 degrees Fahrenheit), with wind speeds as high as 2,100 kilometers per hour, possibly driven from heat radiating deep within the planet. ![]()
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