SCIENTISTS FOUND GEMSTONE CLOUDS ON A BIZARRE EXOPLANET -- AND THE WEBB TELESCOPE COULD REVEAL MORE
Here’s the only way to find out what’s going on at the nightside.
Wikimedia Commons
JOANNA BARSTOW
11 HOURS AGO
SINCE ASTRONOMERS DISCOVERED the first planet orbiting a star other than the Sun, we have found many worlds that are very unlike the ones in our own Solar System. A large number of these “exoplanets” are large, gaseous planets roughly the size of Jupiter, orbiting close to their parent stars once every few days.
Although we can’t directly see these “hot Jupiters”, because they are hidden in the glow from their parent stars, they are the easiest planets to detect using the transit method. This works by inferring their presence indirectly when they pass in front of their parent star, blocking some of the starlights.
During transit, we can also measure atmospheric composition by detecting different gases in the starlight that have filtered through the atmosphere. But this only tells us about conditions in one region of the planet. In a new study of the exoplanet dubbed WASP-121b, published in Nature Astronomy, we have managed to directly investigate a hot Jupiter’s global atmosphere in unprecedented detail.
Planets that orbit very close to their parent stars are locked with one side in permanent daylight, and one in perpetual night. Depending on exactly how close that orbit is, the “dayside” can reach extremely high temperatures — sometimes even exceeding that of the coolest stars. We can measure the temperature of the dayside by working out the difference in the total amount of light between the star and the planet together and the star on its own.
More:
https://www.inverse.com/science/exoplanet-clouds
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Just staring at the stars. Dreamy. Another great find! Thank you for sharing it. It's good to see you!
🌻❤🌻
