Carl Sagan Institute

After poring over exoplanet scientific papers, Lewis, MacDonald and research associate Jayesh Goyal solved the mystery of seemingly cooler temperatures: Astronomers’ math was wrong. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/04/researchers-use-hot-jupiter-data-mine-exoplanet-chemistry … #Exoplanet @MartianColonist @NikoleKLewis @astro_jgoyal

“It seemed to be a trend - a new phenomenon. The exoplanets were consistently colder than scientists would expect.” Dr. Nikole Lewis (@NikoleKLewis, @CSInst deputy director & assistant professor of astronomy at @Cornell) https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/04/researchers-use-hot-jupiter-data-mine-exoplanet-chemistry … #Exoplanets

“When you treat a planet in only one dimension, you see a planet’s properties - such as temperature - incorrectly. You end up with biases. We knew the 1,000-degree differences were not correct, but we didn’t have a better tool. Now, we do.” Nikole Lewishttps://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/04/researchers-use-hot-jupiter-data-mine-exoplanet-chemistry …

“We won’t be able to travel to these exoplanets any time in the next few centuries, so scientists must rely on models.” Dr. Ryan MacDonald (@MartianColonist, @CSInst fellow, Astronomy postdoc at @Cornell)https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/04/researchers-use-hot-jupiter-data-mine-exoplanet-chemistry …

“We thought we would have to wait for the new space telescopes to launch but our new models suggest the data we already have - from the Hubble Space Telescope - can already provide valuable clues.” Dr. Ryan MacDonald (@MartianColonist) https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/04/researchers-use-hot-jupiter-data-mine-exoplanet-chemistry … @NASAHubble