The planet LTT 9779b is located about 260 light years from Earth.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — When telescopes look for stars and planets that might support life, they sometimes find things that surprise astronomers.
The researchers found a planet they called “hot Neptune”. This scorching hot world circled its sun in less than a day. The planet also has an atmosphere that “should not exist”.
Reported Study Finds, Saturday (6/18/2022), University of Kansas and Crossfield Astronomers said new data from NASA’s TESS and Spitzer space telescopes provide the first view of an exoplanet’s atmosphere captured by a satellite. Planet LTT 9779b, which is located about 260 light-years from Earth and very close to its star.
“This planet has no solid surface, and is even hotter than Mercury in the solar systemyes we do not only melt lead in the planet’s atmosphere, but also platinum, chromium and stainless steel,” said Crossfield.
A year on this planet is less than 24 hours, that’s how fast it orbits its star. This is a pretty extreme system.
The wild ride of “hot Neptune” around its sun isn’t the only thing that has surprised scientists. Study of LTT 9779b reveals cloud layers somehow persisted here.
The planet is so illuminated by its star that its temperature is over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The atmosphere can vaporize everything.
The authors add that the NASA telescope measures the light coming from the planet as it rotates 360 degrees on its axis. At LTT 9779b, scientists found its hottest point at noon when the planet’s sun was directly overhead.
Co-author Nicolas Cowan of McGill University in Montreal added: “The planet is much colder than expected. This suggests that the planet reflects a lot of the starlight hitting it, possibly because of the daytime clouds.
