Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2017

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017 sity of Exeter, UK, have measured how much light the exoplanet WASP-12b reflects — its albedo — in order to learn more about the composition of its atmosphere. The results were surprising, explains lead author Taylor Bell, a Master’s student in astronomy at McGill University who is affiliated with the Institute for Research on Exo- planets: “The measured albedo of WASP-12b is 0.064 at most. This is by NASA/ESA Hubble observes pitch black planet U sing the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, an international team led by astronomers at McGill University, Canada, and the Univer-