Planet turns out to be blue

This video says about itself:

Blue planet HD 189733b around its host star (artist’s impression)

Jul 11, 2013

This illustration shows HD 189733b, a huge gas giant that orbits very close to its host star HD 189733.

See also here.

From the BBC:

Friday 12th July 2013

Glass rain may give planet blue colour

Astronomers have managed to determine the true colour of a planet 63 light-years from Earth.

The world, known as HD189733b, has a deep blue colour and experts reckon it’s the result of glass rain in the atmosphere, which scatters blue light.

To find out what the planet looks like astronomers had to measure how much light was reflected from its surface.

Unlike Earth the alien planets blue-ish colour doesn’t come from the reflection of an ocean.

Researchers say it’s probably due to the unpredictable atmosphere being covered with glass-like particles – which scatter blue light.

Earth looks blue from space because the oceans absorb red and green wavelengths of light more strongly than blue and reflect the blue-ish colour of our sky.

HD189733b is one of the nearest exoplanets to Earth – from a distance it looks quite similar to our planet but it’s actually a huge ball of gas.

Number of Confirmed Alien Planets Nears 1,000: here.

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• Astronomers Say Azure Blue Exoplanet HD 189733b is Not Like Earth (sciencespacerobots.com)
• Astronomers spy blue planet where it rains glass (abc.net.au)
• The other blue planet: HD 189733b’s stunning azure hue revealed by Hubble telescope for first time (independent.co.uk)
• Hubble Telescope determines colour of distant planet for first time – The Age (theage.com.au)
• Found: A Blue Planet That Rains Glass (science.time.com)
• Astronomers find new blue planet where it rains glass – sideways – NDTV (ndtv.com)
• NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope helps Astronomers discover Cobalt Blue Planet (clarksvilleonline.com)