A treasure trove of fascinating and puzzling planets has been found orbiting distant stars beyond our Sun. Of these bizarre worlds, there is a class of enormous gas giants called hot jupiterswho stand out from the crowd as some of the strangest planetary beasts of all. hot jupiters they spin rapidly around their turbulent parent stars and close into toasty orbits, and as such are too hot to support life. These huge, exotic “weirdos” are fascinating as well as mysterious, and nothing like them exists within our own Solar System. In January 2020, astronomers announced their new observations showing that the hottest of them all is also the strangest. In fact, this hottest known hot jupiternicknamed Celtic-9bis classified as a “Ultra-hot Jupiter.” The roasting, tormented giant world undergoes planet-wide meltdowns that are so severe that they rip apart the molecules that make up its exotic atmosphere containing ionized atomic iron and uniquely ionized titanium.
as a Jupiter ultrahot, Kelt-9bIt is one of several known varieties of exoplanets belonging to the distant family of an alien star that inhabits our Milky Way. It weighs nearly three times the mass of our own Solar System’s giant banded Jupiter, and orbits its stellar parent about 670 light-years from Earth. Sporting a roast surface temperature of 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit, Kelt-9b it is hotter than some stars. This planet has the distinction of being the hottest yet discovered.
Now, a team of astronomers using NASA’s infrared Spitzer Space Telescope –– which ended its successful mission in January 2020 – announced that they have found evidence that the heat is too hot even for the molecules of this strange planet to remain intact. Molecules of hydrogen gas are likely to be torn apart on the dayside of this faraway, scorching world, unable to “stick” back together until the severed fragments of their disjointed atoms travel to Kelt-9b cooler night. Normally sequestered refractory elements can survive as atomic species, including singly ionized and neutral atomic iron (Fe and Fe+) and singly ionized titanium (Ti+).
Although Kelt-9b The night side is still roasting, it’s a bit cooler than the day side, and it’s cool enough to allow hydrogen gas molecules to come together and reform. This happy situation lasts until the hydrogen molecules travel back to the intense heat of the dayside, where they again break apart and the cycle begins again.
“This type of planet is so extreme in temperature that it’s a bit separate from many other exoplanets. There are a few other hot jupiters Y super hot jupiters that are not that hot, but hot enough for this effect to occur,” explained Megan Mansfield in a NASA statement dated January 24, 2020. Press release from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Ms. Mansfield is a graduate student at the University of Chicago and lead author of a new paper revealing these findings. Tea JPL is in Pasadena, California.
These new findings are published in Astrophysical journal letters, and reveal the vastly improved sophistication of the technology and analysis required to investigate these very strange and mysterious distant worlds. Astronomers are just beginning to be able to observe the atmospheres of exoplanets, studying the molecular mergers of the brightest and hottest ones.
The best and the brightest, and the most attractive
KELT-9b orbit the afternoon Type B/early type A star KELT-9and the hot gas giant was discovered by astronomers using the Kilogram Extremely Small Telescope (KELT) in 2017.
The surface temperature of KELT-9b mother-star is 10,170 K, this is unusually hot for a star that hosts a In transit planet (a planet floating in front of the dazzling face of its parent star, as seen from Earth). Before the discovery of KELT-9bonly half a dozen type A stars were known to harbor planets, of which the warmest, Wasp-33it is significantly cooler at 7430 K. No b-type stars previously it was observed that they were surrounded by a planet. KELT-9b it travels a circular but highly inclined orbit around its star, and roasts a mother 0.03462 astronomical units (AU) of his stellar father. A A it is equal to the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun, which is approximately 93,000,000 miles, and its orbital period is less than 1.5 days.
KELT-9b it is an enormous gas giant world weighing 2.8 times the mass of our own Solar System’s banded giant, Jupiter. Nevertheless, KELT-9b the density is less than half that of Jupiter. Like many others of its roasted kind, KELT-9b it is tidally locked to its parent star. The outer limit of its atmosphere almost extends its lobe rock. This means that the melting planet is undergoing a rapid atmospheric escape fueled by the extreme amount of radiation it receives from its turbulent and sizzling star.
Meltdown!
KELT-9b it will always maintain its categorization as an uninhabitable planet. Astronomers became aware of its very harsh environment in 2017, when it was first discovered.
In the astrophysical journal letter paper, the planetary science team used the spitzer space telescope to get temperature profiles of this hellishly roasted world. Before his mission was over, spitzer was able to take measurements of subtle alterations in KELT-9b heat. The observations, repeated over many hours, allowed spitzer to detect alterations in that world’s exotic atmosphere as the planet showed itself in phases as it revolved around its parent star.
That allowed the team of astronomers to glimpse the difference between KELT-9b day and its perpetual “night”. In this case, the planet hugs its star in such a close orbital hug that a “year” – one orbit around the star – takes just 1 1/2 days. This means the planet is tidally locked, perpetually showing only one face to its dazzling stellar parent. On the far side of KELT-9b, the night never ends. This is comparable to the way Earth’s Moon shows only one side of our planet.
Gases and heat travel from one side of KELT-9b for the other. An important question for scientists trying to understand the atmosphere of alien planets is how radiation and flux balance each other.
Computer models are important tools in such studies, revealing how these atmospheres are likely to behave at different temperatures. The best scenario for the data obtained from KELT-9b it’s one that includes hydrogen molecules that break apart only to reassemble. This process ends dissociation and recombination.
“If you don’t take into account the dissociation of hydrogen, you get very fast winds from [37 miles or] 60 kilometers per second. That’s probably not likely,” Ms. Mansfield commented on January 24, 2020 JPL press release.
KELT-9b it does not experience large temperature differences between day and night. This suggests a flow of heat from one side to the other. In addition, the “hot spot” on the dayside, which is assumed to be directly below this planet’s host star, was displaced from its expected position. Astronomers do not know the reason for this. It remains yet another tantalizing mystery to solve in this very strange, wonderful, very strange distant world.