SPACE — There are thousands of planets in the universe, these planets sometimes have very strange properties. For example, the planet HD 149026b is probably one of the hottest planets ever discovered.
In 2005, a team of scientists including one from MIT measured the temperature of the hottest planet ever, namely 3,700 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2,300 Kelvin or 2027 Celsius.
Planet HD 149026b was discovered using Spitzer, an infrared space telescope belonging to the American Space Agency (NASA). Scientists watched the small planet disappear behind its star and reappear.
Although the planet HD 149026b cannot be seen separately from its star, the dimming of light reaching Spitzer tells scientists how much light the planet is emitting. From this they inferred the temperature on the side of the planet facing its star.
HD 149026b is the most exotic and strange planet. Discovered in 2005, HD 149026b is slightly smaller than Saturn, making it the smallest exoplanet discovered.
However, the planet is more massive than Saturn and is thought to have a core 70-90 times the mass of the entire Earth. HD 149026b has an amount of heavy elements (elements other than hydrogen and helium) that is comparable to the amount of heavy elements in our entire solar system, outside the Sun.
As time went by, many other planets were also discovered to have high temperatures. For example, planet 55 Cancri e has a sea of molten lava with a surface that reaches 1,982 degrees Celsius.
2023-10-25 23:30:00
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