The planet – named WASP-107b and found 200 light years away in the constellation Virgo
Damn, wish it wasn't so far away. We're running out of helium as it is.
There is plenty of helium closer to home, we just need to work out how to get at it.
Someone more experienced in astrophysics correct me but, does this mean that we now have more reliable means to determining planetary (if not atmospheric) compositions for exoplanets?
Potentially nailing down better candidates for earth-like exoplanets.
Just wait till JWST gets online, one of its missions is to look at exoplanet atmospheres.
If we get working fusion then helium won't be a problem
I mean, not to derail the thread, but to my knowledge there is no shortage of helium on our planet per se. It's scarce yes, but it's not a finite resource in the same sense that oil or precious metals might be. Most helium in use is a byproduct of natural gas mining, and is produced underground by alpha decay particles slowing down and capturing electrons. Thus as long as there are radioactive decay events happening (anywhere there is uranium, radium, radon, or any other alpha radiation producing elements) there will be helium. It's just that there is only so much to go around at any given time.
On topic, that's actually quite cool to know that it's possible to sense atmospheric composition that far away, and using infrared light spectroscopy. Apparantly they're going to hopefully use the same technique on the James Webb telescope, which should give a lot more information on other planets than what is possible with current instruments.
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