SPACE — Planet KELT-9b may be the hottest gas giant exoplanet. Discovered in 2017, this planet is a Jupiter-like world but hotter than most stars.
Reporting from SkyatMagazine, KELT-9b is 2.8 times larger than Jupiter, but its density is only half that of Jupiter. Extreme radiation from its parent star, KELT-9, causes the planet KELT-9b to expand like a balloon.
KELT-9b is tidally locked, meaning the same side of the planet always faces the star as it orbits around it. This means that one side of the planet is always exposed to sunlight. The temperature reaches 4,315°C and makes it hotter than most stars.
KELT-9 also orbits perpendicular to the star’s spin axis, which is equivalent to a planet orbiting perpendicular to the plane of the Solar System.
The star KELT-9 is only 300 million years old. However, it is twice as large and almost twice as hot as our Sun. Scientists say the star KELT-9 will swell into a red giant star in the next few hundred million years.
The hot exoplanet Jupiter was discovered using the transit method, in which astronomers look for regular dips in a star’s brightness, which may indicate a planet orbiting around it.
2023-10-25 07:10:00
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