TRUE BLUE PLANET is a hot-Jupiter-class planet orbiting its yellow-orange star, HD 189733.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope measured the actual visible-light color of the planet, which is deep blue. This color is not due to the presence of oceans, but is caused by the effects of a 2,000-degree-Fahrenheit atmosphere where silicate particles melt to make "raindrops" of glass that scatter blue light more than red light.
The planet HD 189733b was discovered in 2005 and is only 2.9 million miles from its parent star. The planet is so close to its star that it is gravitationally "tidally locked" so that one side always faces the star and the other side is always dark.
In 2007 NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope made a thermal map that identified the presence of an early afternoon hotspot on the planet.High-altitude clouds, laced with silicates, may blow from the day side to the night side at 4,500 miles per hour.
Because the planet is only 63 light-years from Earth, a visitor would see many of the same stars we see in our nighttime sky, though the constellation patterns would be different. Our Sun and the nearest star to our Sun, Alpha Centauri, appear as two faint stars near image center.
Welcome to our Command Center! Make yourself at home and be sure to check out our OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD SpaceCast!
Blue Chip is a Stock Trader who is a Space Economist from the famous Blue Velvet Space Academy. Blue Chip uses empathic skills to help the universe and those in need. Blue Chip's special skills with the Stock Market, helps raise funds for good causes and the development of Space Commerce.
Baby Blue is the youngest team member and was adopted by the True-Blue Team to be trained in SpaceCast Communications Technology. Producing and Broadcasting SpaceCasts throughout the Universe is the mission Baby Blue is leading as part of the Blue Streak Studios.
Blue Heaven is an aerospace engineer and astronomer who collects and studies data. Blue Heaven plans discovery missions and uses the research for future Space Exploration.
Blue Moon is a high degree empath who reads people's hearts and emotional intelligence. Blue Moon uses bright blue rays of love and empathy to heal broken hearts, out of the blue, throughout the Universe.