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55 Cancri E Lab

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55 Cancri e, is a terrestrial planet that orbits around a star similar to our sun, 55 Cancri A. (site). 55 Cancri e is a super earth, which is most common in the galaxy. To study the atmosphere of exoplanet 55 Cancri e, an international team of scientists led by researchers at the University College London (UCL) performed a chemical analysis of the atmosphere. The team discovered that 55 Cancri e has a dry atmosphere without any water vapor. Principal investigator Angelos Tsiaras and his team from UCL used the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and analytic software on NASA’s earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope to determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere. The WFC on board Hubble uses a detector that to process, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths that exist in distant galaxies.
By scanning images produced …show more content…

However, using a novel processing technique to analyze images by the WFC3, the team was able to produce a spectrum, which allows the researchers to determine its chemical makeup. 55 Cancri e’s discovery was described first by containing hydrogen and helium, with small amounts of hydrogen cyanide, indicating a carbon rich atmosphere. This would mean that the exoplanet was very poisonous and a high indicator of high ratio of carbon to oxygen. This was indicated by WFC3 and NASA’s earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope to scan images and measure wavelengths. Second, the study discusses a new way to study super earths, opening a whole new field of research by looking at the atmosphere it gives information on how the planet was formed by looking at its information by and how it evolved. Newly pressed technique to diagnose the first Super Earth supported that the theory is carbon rich. 55 Cancri was not a habitable planet because of this quality of dryness, supplying no water vapour containing hydrogen and helium, and hydrogen

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