Scientists discover iron clouds on exoplanet
Miscellaneous / / February 22, 2022
This is an amazing, but completely uninhabited place.
Scientists from the Institute for Astronomy of the Max Planck Society (Germany) have published the results of a new studyDiurnal variations in the stratosphere of the ultrahot giant exoplanet WASP-121b exoplanets WASP-121b. It is located in the constellation Puppis at a distance of about 850 light-years from Earth and is so subject to the forces of gravity that the shape recalls American football ball.
It is an exoplanet of the "hot Jupiter" class (gas giants the size of Jupiter, which are located closer to their star - usually two orders of magnitude). Due to its proximity to the star, the planet's rotation is tidally locked to the orbit around it. As a result, one of the hemispheres of WASP-121b is constantly facing the star, which heats the surface up to 3000 degrees Celsius. The night side is always directed away from the star, and the temperature on it is about 1500 degrees cooler.
The authors of a new study studied the water cycle between the day and night sides of the planet. Both sides are constantly too hot for water clouds to form, but that doesn't mean there aren't any clouds at all. Researchers have detected wild weather patterns on the night side - including metallic clouds. They are composed of iron, magnesium, chromium and vanadium, which melt as a gas on the day side and condense into liquid clouds on the night side.
But even this is not the strangest feature of the WASP-121b. No traces of aluminum or titanium were found in its atmosphere, which should have been there. Scientists believe that these metals condense and fall as rain in the lower atmosphere, which they cannot see into.
This rain is not at all like something that can be seen in the solar system: “For example, aluminum in such conditions condenses with oxygen, forming a complex corundum. With impurities of chromium, iron, titanium or vanadium, rubies and sapphires familiar to us are obtained. Thus, on the nighttime hemisphere of WASP-121 b, it could very well be raining liquid gems.”
The researchers intend to continue studying this strange planet - including with the help of the recently launched James Webb telescope.
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Cover: NASA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI)