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HD 189733 b is a giant extrasolar planet, discovered in October 2005, in the Haute-Provence Observatory, located in southeast France, through an astronomic method known as Doppler Spectroscopy Transit. Located in a faraway constellation called Vulpecula, it orbits the primary star of a binary system, known as HD 189733, also displayed on astronomic records as V452 Vulpeculae. Classified as a Hot Jupiter – which is a vulgar term associated with extrasolar planets that are as big as Jupiter in size, but, due to close proximity to its host star (amongst other reasons), are extremely hot –, the average temperature is estimated to be between 1066,85 ºC to 1266,85ºC. In 2013 it was discovered that HD 189733 b has a somewhat cobalt blue color, due to silicate components probably being abundant in the extrasolar planet’s atmosphere. HD 189733 b also became infamous in the astronomic international community after it was discovered that rains of glass are a constant in the extrasolar planet’s surface, all abundantly pushed by hostile winds on a speed of 8690 km/h.
Technology, mathematical algorithms and complex arithmetical systems play a major part on the discovery and examination of extrasolar planets, given the fact that they are so exponentially distant from the Solar System that full observation by a telescope helps little in a more accurate and precise analysis. One of the interesting points about HD 189733 b is the fact that it is so close to its star – 4,7 million kilometers approximately – that an orbit is fully completed in every two days. This proximity also causes the exoplanet to be tidally locked in its gravitational route, which means that one side of the surface is always facing its host star, while the other is perpetually hidden from it. In 2007, only two years after HD 189733 b’s discovery, a team of astronomical scientists published a study showing the probabilities of water vapor to be present in the extrasolar planet’s atmosphere. In this same period, NASA began to show interest and to study HD 189733 b as well. A team of scientists in the University of Exeter, in the United Kingdom, had started also their own studies about the curious exoplanet, measuring the alterations of its luminosity during its gravitational movement around its host star. HD 189733 b also became the first extrasolar planet to be fully heat mapped.
Although a fascinating discovery, there are several others extrasolar planets being fully studied as well, with many more to be discovered in the near future. With extremely improved technological devices and techniques available to realize a more profound study – aiming to compensate the blank spaces in knowledge that we have, since the hugely immense distance from our Solar System to the constellation where HD 189733 b is located turns useless a direct telescopic observation, given the fact that little, if any image whatsoever, can be actually seen – the astronomic international community is excited with the prospect of new discoveries. Although it is almost twelve years now since HD 189733 b has appeared on the map of the known universe, certainly a lot more information will be available in the years to come. Currently, NASA has plans to release in 2018 a new space telescope, called TESS – acronym for Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite –, which has as a primary objective the detection and study of extrasolar planets, using the transit method.
With several complexities that makes investigation of HD 189733 b an intriguing and fascinating challenge, scientists and astronomers are fully absorbed by the peculiarities of this incredible and majestic exoplanet. With a lot of the scientific data fully filled, they seem eager to pass to the next level, to decipher what they don’t know for sure, but are anxious to discover. Marvelously, the universe is filled with unexpected and joyful mysteries, and there are always people eager to decipher them all, for the sake of our fascination and curiosity.
Wagner
With several complexities that makes investigation of HD 189733 b an intriguing and fascinating challenge, scientists and astronomers are fully absorbed by the peculiarities of this incredible and majestic exoplanet. With a lot of the scientific data fully filled, they seem eager to pass to the next level, to decipher what they don’t know for sure, but are anxious to discover. Marvelously, the universe is filled with unexpected and joyful mysteries, and there are always people eager to decipher them all, for the sake of our fascination and curiosity.
Wagner
