This exoplanet, also known by another equally ugly name, HAT-P-11b, is 122 light-years from us. Its radius is about 5 times the earth's radius and its mass is equivalent to 26 earths.
But its real mystery is what French astronomers discovered in 2009: a weak radio signal seemed to come from there. Unfortunately that signal was not received again, which increased the mystery around this peculiar planet. Are we facing a broadcast made by an extraterrestrial civilization?
Unfortunately not. Researchers at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland, seem to have solved the mystery: the cause may be a series of lightning bolts of the intensity similar to those of Saturn and that are 1,000 times more powerful than those we see here on Earth.
According to these researchers, 53 of these terrifying lightning bolts hit a square kilometer of surface every hour to produce the radio waves detected in 2009. To get an idea of their power: the largest lightning storm that we have ever seen on our planet alone it would provide 1% of the energy released in that Kepler 3b storm.
