Researchers gained insight into hazy planets by looking at Saturn's moon Titan.
"It turns out there's a lot you can learn from looking at a sunset," Tyler Robinson, a NASA Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NASA's Ames Research Center, said in a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory news release.
These sunsets can be separated into to component colors to create spectra. Even though hazy exoplanets are extremely far away from Earth, researchers have been able to collect their spectra.
When one of these far off worlds passes in front of its host star some of its light subtly changes in a way that can be collected by telescopes and measured.
Spectra allows researchers to better-understand some of the properties of the planets, such as "temperature, composition and structure of their atmospheres," the news release reported.
Researchers used similar techniques to look at Titan, which is much closer to us than hazy exoplanets. The research revealed the dramatic effects of haze.
Titan is blanketed in clouds; researchers believe it has similar properties to many known exoplanets.
"Previously, it was unclear exactly how hazes were affecting observations of transiting exoplanets," Robinson said. "So we turned to Titan, a hazy world in our own solar system that has been extensively studied by Cassini."
The research suggests high-hanging haze could limit what spectra is available to earthly observers. The team found this type of haze could have a strong effect on shorter wavelengths.
"People had dreamed up rules for how planets would behave when seen in transit, but Titan didn't get the memo," Mark Marley, a co-author of the study at NASA Ames, said in the news release. "It looks nothing like some of the previous suggestions, and it's because of the haze."
This technique could apply to almost any world.
"It's rewarding to see that Cassini's study of the solar system is helping us to better understand other solar systems as well," Curt Niebur, Cassini program scientist at NASA Headquarters, said in the news release.
