Astronomers that use NASA’s James Webb space telescope (Jwst) They have discovered the tumultuous story of a distant and hellish explanet that is being stretched and burned by its star.
The planet, known as WASP-121BIt is locked in an orbit dangerously close around a star approximately 900 light years away that is brighter and more hot than our sun. Locking in a 30 -hour scorching orbit, the world is so close to its star that the intense tide forces have deformed him in a form of football, leaving him to the edge of being shattered by gravity. One side of the planet faces its star permanently, baking at temperatures of more than 3,000 ° C (5,400 ° F), hot enough for liquid iron rain. Even the opposite hemisphere, locked in the eternal night, over low heat at 1,500 ° C (2,700 ° F). This extreme environment makes WASP-121B one of the most hostile planets ever observed, and a valuable objective for planetary science.
Now, using the Infrared Telescope (JWST) spectrographer instrument of James Webb (JWST), or Nirspec, a team led by astronomer Thomas Evans-Soma of the University of New Castle in Australia detected a cocktail of molecules in the atmosphere of the planet that each carries chemical clues to their dramatic trip. These include water vapor, carbon monoxide, methane and, for the first time in a planetary atmosphere, silicon monoxide.
Together, they tell a dramatic history of wasp-121b written in steam and stone, described in two papers Posted on Monday (June 2).
“Studying the chemistry of ultra hot planets such as Wasp-121B helps us understand how giant gas atmospheres work in extreme temperature conditions,” said Joanna Barstow, a planetary scientist at the United Kingdom Open University and co-author of both new studies, in a statement.
The findings of both studies suggest that Wasp-121b did not train where it is today. On the other hand, it probably originated in a colder and more distant region of its planetary system, similar to the area between Jupiter and Uranus in our own solar system. There, ICES rich in methane and heavy elements would have accumulated, embeding a different chemical firm in its growth atmosphere.
Later, gravitational interactions, possibly with other planets, would have sent a WASP-121B spiral inward towards their star. As he approached, his supply of frozen and oxygen pebbles would have cut, but he should have continued gathering carbon rich gas. This would explain why the atmosphere of the world today contains more carbon than oxygen, a chemical imbalance that offers a snapshot of its trip through the album.
To make sense of the complex atmospheric data, the second team of researchers, led by Cyril Gapp of the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy in Germany, created 3D models of the planet’s atmosphere, which represents the large temperature differences between the sides of the day and night. His simulations, described in an article published in the astronomical magazine, helped separate the signs of different regions of the planet as he orbit, revealing how the molecules change and circulate throughout the orbit.
Among the recently detected molecules, the presence of silicon monoxide was particularly revealing, scientists say, since it is generally not in the gaseous form they observed. Instead, researchers suggest that this gas was originally locked in solid minerals such as quartz within the asteroid size that crashed into the young planet. Over time, as the planet grew and spoiled towards its star, those materials would have been vaporized and mixed in its atmosphere, according to one of the new articles, published in the astronomy of nature.
On the coolest “night” side of Wasp-121b, the researchers found an abundance of methane gas. This was a surprise since methane generally breaks down under such heat, the study points out.
“Given how hot this planet is, we did not expect to see methane on its night,” said Anali Pietet, an astronomy assistant professor at the University of Birmingham, in a statement.
Its presence suggests that methane is recovering, probably taken from deeper and colder layers from the atmosphere.
“This challenges the dynamic Exoplanet models, which will probably need to adapt to reproduce the strong vertical mix that we have discovered on Wasp-121b night,” the main author of the Thomas Evans-Soma study of the University of New Castle in Australia added to another statement.
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