Scientists map a distant planet’s atmosphere for the first time – and it’s lopsided

By Hannah Wakeford, Associate professor, University of Bristol

When scientists study exoplanets, planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, they often lack three-dimensional information. For example, general mathematical relationships are used to estimate a planet’s radius, even though that distance may be different depending on where it is measured.

Similar principles apply to measuring the atmosphere of an exoplanet, which often blurs all the features around the planet into one average spectrum. A spectrum is the record of how starlight filters through the atmosphere.…

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