WASP-121b, a planet 900 light years from Earth, has an atmospheric temperature of 2,500 ° C, so hot it can melt iron.
An international team led by the National Competence Center for Planetary Studies at the University of Bern and the University of Geneva (Switzerland) “penetrated” the atmosphere of WASP-121b, a super planet.
This planet orbits closer to its parent star than the Sun-Earth distance by up to 40 times, so it has received a tremendous amount of heat.
According to Dr. Jens Hoeijmakers, one of the lead authors of the study, they verified the data with the HARPS spectrometer and identified at least seven metals that exist in gaseous state on the planet: iron, chromium, calcium, sodium. , magnesium, nickel.
Previously, in 2019, when it was first discovered, this strange planet had once attracted the attention of the scientific world because it was not a round sphere but … an oval one. The reason is that it orbits too close to the parent star and is strongly attracted to the parent star’s gravity, distorting the entire sphere. Perhaps in the future he will soon be destroyed in this unequal struggle.
The planet “hell” WASP-121b, discovered four years ago in the constellation of Korma, turned out to have the shape not of a round ball, but of an elongated egg or a giant rugby ball. .
“We began to observe this planet with great interest due to its ‘extreme’ nature. We tried to see traces of magnesium, iron and other metals in its outer shell and were surprised to find them. A very long distance from this planet, “said expert David Singh from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA).
WASP-121b is a gas giant nearly twice the size of Jupiter and revolves around its mother star. This exoplanet is so close to its parent star that one year there are only 1.3 days left on Earth. Due to its proximity, the top of the planet’s atmosphere has a temperature of up to 2,500 ° C, which is about half the temperature of the Sun’s surface. At this temperature, iron exists as a gas rather than as a solid as usual.
WASP-121 aggressively pierces the atmospheres of its satellites, causing it to “bulge” by the effects of heat and light, as well as by its gravitational pull. As a result, WASP-121b not only becomes the hottest and most extreme planet, but also the most bizarre.
“When we pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at WASP, we saw glowing water molecules, indicating that the planet has a thick stratosphere,” said researcher Tom Evans of the University of Exeter, UK. . The Hubble Telescope sees this halo as infrared light that cannot be seen by the human eye.
“Theoretical models that point to the stratosphere could help identify a particular class of superheated exoplanets, which have important implications for the study of atmospheric physics and chemistry,” Evans said.
By examining the wavelength of light hitting the planet’s gas space, the researchers were able to calculate the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere and its heat. Cooler water vapor in the upper atmosphere can block certain infrared wavelengths, according to NASA. But hotter vapor will emit the same wavelength. From the amount of light escaping into space, the team found that the temperature increased with altitude.
“This ultra-hot exoplanet will become a landmark for our atmospheric modeling. It will be a major observation target during the era of the James Webb Space Telescope,” Middle East scientist Hannah Wakeford said. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, study co-authored, shared.
