Video Transcript: Super Earth Reveals Itself to Spitzer
Robert Hurt: The exoplanet 55 Cancri e, which is about twice as large as the Earth,
orbits closely around its star and is blazingly hot.
While in visible light it's easily lost in the glare of the star,
its thermal glow in the infrared makes it stand out much more vividly.
Watching as the planet passes behind the star, astronomers have detected a slight dip in brightness using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
This is the first direct measurement of the brightness of such a small planet.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology