This figure charts 30 hours of observations taken by NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope of a strongly irradiated exoplanet (an planet orbiting a star
beyond our own). Spitzer measured changes in the planet's heat, or
infrared light.
The lower graph shows precise measurements of infrared light with a
wavelength of 8 microns coming from the HD 80606 stellar system. The
system consists of a sun-like star and a planetary companion on an
extremely eccentric, comet-like orbit. The geometry of the planet-star
encounter is shown in the upper part of the figure.
As the planet swung through its closest approach to the star, the Spitzer
observations indicated that it experienced very rapid heating (as shown by
the red curve). Just before close approach, the planet was eclipsed by the
star as seen from Earth, allowing astronomers to determine the amount of
energy coming from the planet in comparison to the amount coming from the
star.
The observations were made in Nov. of 2007, using Spitzer's infrared array
camera. They represent a significant first for astronomers, opening the
door to studying changes in atmospheric conditions of planets far beyond
our own solar system.