Artist’s Concept of Extasolar Planet GJ 436b

This artist's concept shows "The Behemoth," an enormous comet-like cloud of hydrogen bleeding off of a warm, Neptune-sized planet just 30 light-years from Earth. Also depicted is the parent star, which is a faint red dwarf named GJ 436. The hydrogen is evaporating from the planet due to extreme radiation from the star. A phenomenon this large has never before been seen around any exoplanet.

About the data

Data of GJ 436b were obtained from the HST proposals 12034 , PI: J. Green (University of Colorado, Boulder), et al. and 12956 : PI: D. Ehrenreich (Observatory of the University of Geneva, Switzerland), et al.

The science team comprises: D. Ehrenreich and V. Bourrier (Observatory of the University of Geneva, Switzerland), P. Wheatley (University of Warwick, UK), A. Lecavelier des Etangs (CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), G. Hebrard (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris/Observatoire de Haute-Provence), S. Udry (Observatory of the University of Geneva, Switzerland), X. Bonfils and X. Delfosse (University of Grenoble, France), J.-M. Desert (CASA), D. Sing (University of Exeter), and A. Vidal-Madjar (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris).