英国剑桥大学日前宣称，多亏了美国宇航局（NASA）的斯皮策太空望远镜，天文学家首次观测到一颗质量是地球10倍的超级地球大气中的巨大和急速波动。

在一项在线发表的最新研究中，该研究团队描绘了对在距地球约40光年的巨蟹座中发现的这颗岩态行星所释放热量的测量，是如何揭示其大气温度在两年内在1000℃～2700℃之间振荡的。研究人员表示，尽管这种变化的起因未知，但岩石表面大量的火山活动可能正在驱动这些变化。

Thanks to NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have observed wild and rapid fluctuations in the atmospheric conditions of a super-Earth—a planet with a mass up to 10 times that of Earth—for the first time, the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom announced. In a new study published online today, the team describes how measurements of thermal emissions from the rocky planet—found about 40 light-years away in the Cancer constellation—revealed atmospheric temperature oscillations between 1000°C and 2700°C over a 2-year period. Although the cause of the variability is unknown, immense amounts of volcanic activity on the rocky surface could be driving the changes, the researchers say.