NASA Could Find Breathable Worlds to Colonize Through Cloud-like Planet in Space

NASA may be one step closer to finding new planets in outer space for human beings to live on, thanks to their recent mapping of a cloud-like structure of a planet in outer space.

With the use of Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes, NASA scientists have been able to map out, for the first time ever, the surface of Kepler 7b, a hot, gaseous planet in the cosmos not unlike Jupiter.

"Our analysis does not only present evidence of optically thick clouds on Kepler-7b but also yields the first map of clouds in an exoplanet atmosphere," the study notes.

The significance of this, scientists involved in the study leading to this discovery say, is that scientists may now have a place to start when they try to determine what makes up the atmospheres of planets that appear more Earth-like in size and composition--something that may lead one day to the discovery of a planet beyond Earth where humans can live.

"By observing this planet with Spitzer and Kepler for more than three years, we were able to produce a very low-resolution 'map' of this giant, gaseous planet," said MIT's Brice-Olivier Demory, lead author of the study, according to U.K.-based paper the Register. "We wouldn't expect to see oceans or continents on this type of world, but we detected a clear, reflective signature that we interpreted as clouds."

The probe made by the Kepler telescope found a bright spot on the gas-giant plant--which has less mass than Jupiter but is considerably larger--on the western hemisphere to the planet. However, thanks to insufficient data, astronomers were unable to determine the cause of that bright spot, whether it was coming from the clouds or from internal heat.

The Spitzer telescope, on the other hand, was able to find infrared light on the planet, helping it to discover that the temperature of Kepler-7b ranged between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, which is relatively cool considering the close range that it orbits its star. Based on this observation, astronomers hypothesize that the light from the planet's star could be coming from the clouds on the planet's west side.

"Kepler-7b reflects much more light than most giant planets we've found, which we attribute to clouds in the upper atmosphere," Thomas Barclay with NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., who works on the Kepler telescope team, said in a statement.

The study is published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.