It might be blue, but it's a bit too warm
Putting aside the fact that it rains glass sideways, boasts winds topping 7,000 kpm and enjoys a temperature of 1,000C, the planet HD 189733b looks a lot like Earth.
Exeter Express and Echo
It's mainly blue.
Astronomers from the University of Exeter using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have, for the first time, determined the true colour of HD 189733b.
It would, they have agreed, be a deep cobalt blue, reminiscent of Earth's colour as seen from space. In fact the blue dot is a huge gas giant orbiting very close to its host star, 63 light-years from us. At that distance it is one of the nearest exoplanets to Earth that can be seen crossing the face of its star.
Frédéric Pont from the University of Exeter, leader of the Hubble observing programme and an author of this new paper said: "Measuring its colour is a real first — we can actually imagine what this planet would look like if we were able to look at it directly."
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