Charged-Carbon-Particles-Exoplanet-HAT-P-11b_2

Hubble’s observations of an extended region of charged carbon particles that surround the exoplanet HAT-P-11b and streaming away in a long tail are best explained by magnetic field, the first such discovery on a planet outside of our solar system. The planet is depicted as the small circle near the center. Carbon ions fill an immense region it. In the magnetotail, not shown to its full extent, ions escape at the observed average speeds of about 100,000 mph. 1 AU equals the distance between the Earth and the sun. Credit: Lotfi Ben-Jaffel/Institute of Astrophysics, Paris