#kepler-13ab

Astronomers at Penn State have used the Hubble Space Telescope to find a blistering-hot giant planet outside our solar system where the atmosphere "snows" titanium dioxide—the active ingredient in sunscreen. These Hubble observations are the first detections of this "snow-out" process, called a "cold trap," on an exoplanet. This discovery, and other observations made by the Penn State team, provide insight into the complexity of weather and atmospheric composition on exoplanets, and may someday be useful for gauging the habitability of Earth-size planets.

Sunscreen ingredient falls as ‘snow’ on hot exoplanet Kepler-13Ab

This illustration shows the seething hot planet Kepler-13Ab that circles very close to its host star, Kepler-13A. On the nighttime side, the planet’s immense gravity pulls down titanium oxide, which precipitates as snow. Seen in the background is the star’s binary companion, Kepler-13B, and the third member of the multiple-star system is the orange dwarf star, Kepler-13C. Image & Caption Credit:…