Exoplanets have different appearances. Among them, the super-Earth “55 Cancri e” is a hell-like world and has been emitting strange transit signals in the past 20 years. Now, the Webb Space Telescope may be able to solve this mystery, because the atmosphere of 55 Cancri e is constantly being lost and regenerated.
After the Webb Space Telescope was launched last year, one of the two super-Earths observed in its first year was 55 Cancri e. This is an exoplanet orbiting the sun-like star 55 Cancri A. It was discovered in 2004. It is about 40 light years away from the earth, has a diameter of about twice the earth, and a mass about eight times the earth. It is very close to its parent star, only 2% of the distance between the earth and the sun. Therefore, 55 Cancri e only takes 18 hours to orbit the parent star.
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Previous infrared light observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope showed that the temperature on the sunny side of 55 Cancri e is as high as 2,427°C. Although the temperature on the backside is lower, it is still as high as hell at 1,127°C. It has extreme environments that cannot be explained on earth, such as the surface being covered by magma. sea cover.
Over the years, researchers have also discovered that this planet has been emitting puzzling transit signals. When 55 Cancri e orbits behind its parent star, it does not emit visible light. At other times, it emits strong visible light signals, but there is always a signal in the infrared light band. , but the signal strength is different.
According to a new study, scientists believe the reason may be that 55 Cancrie’s atmosphere “comes and goes.”
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The team points out that huge volcanoes on the planet will erupt regularly to form an atmosphere. However, because the extremely high temperature of the planet itself cannot be maintained for a long time, the gas will eventually be blown away by stellar radiation and stellar winds, causing the planet to be temporarily without an atmosphere. At this stage, the star’s atmosphere no longer emits visible light, but the hot surface can still emit infrared light; until the volcanoes start erupting again and the planet’s atmosphere expands, visible light and all radiation from the surface will appear in the signal.
Although this is just a hypothesis of scientists, the Webb Space Telescope can test this idea by measuring the pressure and temperature of the planet’s atmosphere to determine whether the atmosphere of 55 Cancri e is always present.
(Source of first picture:NASA）
