Middle Indo Post,Jakarta – Researchers have recently discovered a “hellish planet” covered in magma. What is the purpose of research on this clearly uninhabitable planet?
This rocky planet is called 55 Cancri e, also nicknamed Janssen. This planet orbits so close to its star that a year lasts only 18 hours. This very close distance turns the surface into a giant sea of lava.
The temperature on the side facing the star averages 2,573 Kelvin (2,300 degrees Celsius), according to Science Alert. While the night side reaches 950 Kelvin (676.85 degrees Celsius). This temperature is very hot and even hotter than molten magma.
The new findings come thanks to a new instrument called EXPRES that has captured ultra-precise measurements of the starlight shining from Janssen’s Sun, known as Copernicus or 55 Cnc. The light measurements changed slightly as Janssen moved between Earth and Copernicus.
According to Eurekalert, Janssen is the first “super-Earth” found around a main-sequence star. Although Janssen has a similar density to Earth and probably had a rock structure, it is about eight times as large and twice as wide.
Janssen is the first example of an ultra-short period planet. Janssen’s orbit has a minimum radius of about 2 million kilometers. For comparison, Mercury is 46 million kilometers away and Earth is about 147 million kilometers away.
Janssen’s orbit was so close to that of Copernicus that at first some astronomers doubted its existence. Analyzing these measurements, astronomers discovered that Janssen orbits Copernicus along the star’s equator.
In research published in the journal Nature, the researchers call this orbit unlike the orbits of the other Copernicus planets, which are in a different orbit.
The implication is that Janssen may have formed in a relatively cooler and more distant orbit, but was slowly pulled towards Copernicus over time. Then, as Janssen approached, Copernicus’ stronger gravitational pull changed the planet’s orbit.
“We learned how this multi-planetary system — one of the systems with the largest number of planets we’ve found — arrived at its current state,” said study lead author Lily Zhao, who is also a research associate at the Flatiron. Institute of the Center. for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) in New York City.
Later, Zhao said the planet was most likely so hot that it would have been impossible for anything to survive on its surface. In addition, the new findings may help scientists better understand how planets form and move over time. Such information is critical to knowing how common Earth-like environments are in the universe and how abundant extraterrestrial life is.
Copernicus’ planetary system itself is located 40 light-years from Earth. This planetary system is of particular interest because it has been so well studied. This system has five exoplanets orbiting a main sequence star accompanied by a red dwarf.(Red)
