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| A artistic impression of WASP-76b's atmosphere | Credit: ESO and M. Kornmesser |
There is a new King for the 'Most Extreme Exoplanet' crown - WASP-76b!
Astronomers have released a new study of the hellish-exoplanet 640 light-years from Earth were atmosphere is so hot-up that it rains molten iron! This exoplanet is a member of the new family of exoplanets discovered in past few years - "ultra-hot" gas giants.
Researchers used the planet-hunting ESPRESSO instrument of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile to study WASP-76b(discovered in 2013).
WASP-76b orbits a star which is twice as large as our Sun. It cruses around the host-star and completes one revolution in every 1.8 Earth days. WASP-76b has diameter nearly twice as large as Jupiter, but, has nearly the same mass. This is due to excessive heating from the host-star which resulted the exoplanet to puff.
WASP-76b is tidally locked to the host-star, i.e. its one side always faces the star and other is in eternal darkness. It orbits so close to its host that the day side temperature are scorching high and climbs upto 2400 degree Celsius - high enough to vaporize metal! The night side is much colder with temperature ranging around 1500 degree Celsius......did I called it cold?
ESPRESSO detected iron vapors at the "evening" side where day-side met the night, but on the other side of the planet i.e. the "morning" side there were no traces of iron vapor. Something caused the vapors to disappear in the night-side of the planet.
The possible explanation to this was the winds and the rotation of WASP-76b carried the iron vapors from the dayside to the nightside. The temperatures in the nightside are cold enough to condense the iron vapors into clouds. These cloud then poured molten iron rains on the planet! The rain clouds consist of compounds like iron sulfide and iron hydride.
And the speed of the rain is insanely high, because of the temperature difference between the two halves of the planet. For instance, the iron vapor from the dayside races towards the nightside at a speed reaching 11,000 mph (18,000 km/hr)........take your time to digest this.....
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| image source : Gonzolo Golpe |
The new research was published in the journal Nature. The lead author David Ehrenreich said, "Exoplanets are a real treasure trove full of surprises. The more you look, the more you find."
WASP-76b has again taught us that what we know is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of things in the Universe we don't even know and some we can't even imagine. This discovery will help us understand climate and global circulation models which will further help us better understand the atmosphere of the exoplanets.
What other surprising things can other planets have? Trigger your imagination and share in the comments down below.
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