Off in not-too-distant outer space, about 63 light-years away, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a true blue planet.
Images of the planet HD 189733b orbiting its star reveal a tiny, blue speck reminiscent of Earth's color when seen from space.
The Hubble telescope measured slight changes in the color of light from the planet before, during and after as it passed behind its star, confirming previous suggestions that the distant planet is indeed blue.
"We saw the light becoming less bright in the blue but not in the green or red. Light was missing in the blue but not in the red when it was hidden," said research team member Frederic Pont of the University of Exeter in South West England. "This means that the object that disappeared was blue."
However, color is about the only similarity the planet shares with our own.
Daytime surface temperatures on HD 189733b are nearly 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,093 C) and the weather is equally hellish, NASA reports. Wind gusts howl as 4,500 mph and rains on HD 189733b may come in the form of glass shards.
The glass rain, likely silicates condensing in the heat, is what makes the planet appear blue when light reflects off of it, not unlike how light reflecting off Earth's blue ocean colorizes our planet from space.
HD 189733b, which was discovered in 2005 in the constellation Vulpecula, is among a strange class of planets called hot Jupiters, which orbit very close to their stars. In the case of this latest blue planet, it's so close to its star - only 2.9 million miles - it's gravitationally locked, one side always faces the star; the other side is always dark.