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New observations of a football-shaped exoplanet known as WASP-121b revealed evidence of it is a the atmosphere and Atmosphere. astronomers say It might be metallic clouds composed of iron and corundum, and titanium.
WASP-121b orbits a star 850 light-years from Earth and is twice the size of Jupiter. (Categorized as he ist Júpiterwhich means that a The whirling gas giant relatively close she has Star.) WASP-121b ccomplete A revolution in just 30 hours – a little longer than Earth Day. Like that It has a strange rectangular shapedue to the strong gravitational forces to which the planet is subject.
But the really amazing element in The latest results are details of the planet’s climate. how was it The temperature drops at night It’s at It changes throughout the atmosphere. The team observed hot Jupiter using the Hubble Space Telescope, and study them He is published This week in Nature Astronomy.
Tansu Dylan, an astrophysicist at MIT and a co-author of the paper, said in a statement Launch of the Institute. “The night side of WASP-121b is about 10 times weaker than the day side.”
The dramatically different temperatures on either side of the planet create a dynamic environment for the different particles floating around in the atmosphere. in broad daylightIt’s at explosive water By about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit And exploded to the night side of the planet for 11,000Miles per hour winds. “These winds are much faster than our jet stream and can probably move clouds across the planet in about 20 hours,” Dylan said.
On the night side, hydrogen and oxygen atoms combine, Only to wander back to the side of the day to split again. It is far more volatile than the Earth’s water cycle than evaporation, condensation and rain, even when our world is at its most violent.
Also, the night side of the planet is cold enough to highlight clouds made of metal. Hot temperatures on the hot side of the planet can vaporize iron, corundum and titanium, which can cause heavy metal rain to fall back on the cold side as the gas clouds move. Previously, another interesting planet – WASP 76b—showed signs Similar phenomenon.
Following recent Hubble observations, the team took time to observe the newly launched rocket. Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to begin scientific work this summer. (Currently, Webb He is still being prepared.) They want to map carbon monoxide on the planet, which is what led author Thomas Michael Evans, an astrophysicist at MIT, to He said It could help researchers understand how hot Jupiter is appearance.
Over millions of years, tidal forces persisted WASP121-b will tear distant planet. until that moment, The planet will continue its extraordinary dance day and night.
More: Encouraging Web telescope image showing a single star in familiar pattern
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