PARIS: Astronomers said on Thursday they had found another blue planet a long, long way from Earth—no water world, but a scorching, hostile place where it rains glass, sideways.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists from Nasa and its European counterpart, ESA, have for the first time determined the true colour of an exoplanet, celestial bodies which orbit stars other than our own Sun.

They concluded that HD 189733b, a gas giant 63 light-years from our own planet, was a deep cobalt blue, “reminiscent of Earth's colour as seen from space.” “But that's where the similarities end,” said a statement.

This planet orbits very close to its host star and its atmosphere is heated to over 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit).

“It rains glass, sideways, in howling 7,000 kilometre-per-hour (4,350 miles-per-hour) winds,” said the statement.—AFP