Astronomers find elements that make up minerals and rocks in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-sized planet!
Illustration of a giant gas planet. Astronomers used the Gemini North Telescope to detect rocky planet-forming elements in the atmospheres of Jupiter-sized exoplanets. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine/M. age
On a clear evening, go out into the yard and look at the sky. Use the star chart and find the constellation Pisces. Can you find the constellation Pisces?
In this constellation of Pisces there is a strange, alien world. And astronomers find evidence of oddities on the planet!
Extreme Temperature
WASP-76b. It’s the name of a strange exoplanet in the constellation Pisces. This planet orbits the star WASP-76 which is 634 light years away. It is far from Earth, but WASP-76b is very close to its parent star. Almost 12 times closer than Mercury is to the Sun. So close, this planet is burning hot with temperatures of 2000ºC.
These extreme temperatures cause planets to behave in strange ways. In the first, the planet swells or swells until its volume is almost six times that of Jupiter.
Not only that.
The second oddity is that most of the elements that form minerals and rocks that are usually hidden in the atmosphere actually evaporate and appear in the form of gas. Just like steam rising from a hot cup of tea!
Don’t forget that on planet WASP-76b, it rains iron instead of water. And this is due to the very high temperatures on the day side of the planet. Yup! Planet WASP-76b is gravitationally locked with a star so that one side is always day because it is facing the star, and the other side is always night.
Rock Element
Astronomers detected eleven of the elements that make up these rocks in WASP-76b’s atmosphere with the Gemini North Telescope. The 11 elements are sodium, potassium, lithium, nickel, manganese, chromium, magnesium, vanadium, barium, calcium and iron.
The discovery of these rock-forming elements is one of the important keys to understanding how gas giant planets form. Mysteries that are still not fully revealed to date.
The abundance of elements that make up rock on exoplanets matches that found in the parent star WASP-76b and in the Sun. This discovery confirms that the process of formation of gas giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn is almost like a star, namely through the mixing of gas and dust in the protoplanetary disk. Meanwhile, rocky planets like ours formed from the accretion and collision processes of dust, rock, and planetesimals.
Ozon Exoplanet
There is still another oddity. For the first time astronomers have also discovered the presence of very strange but significant molecules on exoplanets. Vanadium oxide. This molecule functions like ozone on Earth.
With interesting chemical profiles and important clues from WASP-76b, astronomers can study how gas giant planets and planetary systems formed in the Solar System and in other stars in the cosmos.
Cool Facts:
Did you know that if the temperature is not too high then the elements detected on the planet WASP-76b should form rocks like those on Earth? The chemical composition of the giant gas planets in the Solar System is also similar to WASP-76b. However, the giant planets in the Solar System are too cold, so elements that should evaporate into the atmosphere remain trapped on the planets forever and are never detected.
Source: This article is a republished version developed from Indonesian edition of Space Scoop Universe Awareness. The Indonesian edition of Space Scoop is translated by Langitselatan.
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2023-07-14 07:06:53
#Strangeness #Alien #Planet #WASP76b #skysouth