The astronomers at NASA recently discovered the water vapor in the atmosphere of HAT-P-11b, an exoplanet size equivalent to Neptune from Earth 124 light years. At the same time, this is also the planet's smallest size ever that scientists can analyze the chemical composition of it. According to researchers, the findings not only provide further understanding of the formation of the giant planets, but also completing a new tool that allows discovery of water on planets similar to Earth universe.

To learn elemental composition in the presence of planets beyond the solar system, and astronomers often survey the amount of light it absorbs the planet as it moves across the star. Until now, researchers have not been able to use this method to probe the planet's size or smaller than Jupiter because they are surrounded by a permanent dense dust cloud. This is the biggest obstacle when studying smaller planets and distant Dat.Tuy However, by combining three telescopes is the Hubble, Spitzer and Kepler plus applicable transmission spectroscopy techniques, the researchers can observe the opacity of the light reflected from the planet HAT-P-11b as it moves across the star. Then the spectrum at this moment will be captured by the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope and comparable to other times in the orbit of HAT-P-11b. Finally, through the difference spectrum of the reflected light, the researchers were able to detect the presence and status of the molecules in the atmosphere of HAT-P-11b. Accordingly, the atmosphere of HAT-P-11b containing 90% hydrogen and the rest is water vapor and some other gases.

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