Sizzling Planet sends heavy metal singing into interstellar space
A myriad of strange worlds revolve around stars beyond our own Sun, and some of these oddballs are so exotic that, until they were discovered, their possible existence was not even in the wildest dreams of planet-hunting astronomers. In fact, the first exoplanet observed in orbit around a star similar to our Sun does not resemble any of the major planets in our Solar System. This exotic and giant sizzle, nicknamed 51 Pegasus b--now known as dymidium–was discovered a generation ago, and circled its star fast and close in a toasty orbit. As the giant band of our own Solar System, Jupiter, dymidium proved to be a giant gas but, until its discovery, astronomers thought that planets like Jupiter could only exist in orbits farther away from their parent stars, roughly where Jupiter lives in the outer region of our Solar System. dymidium It was the first hot jupiter undiscovered, but it was far from the last, and it doesn’t even have the distinction of being the strangest. That title possibly goes to a soccer ball-shaped newfound. hot jupiter nicknamed Wasp-121b, which is so extremely hot that it sends its atmospheric “heavy metals,” such as magnesium and iron gas, singing into the space between the stars. This observation represents the first time that so-called “heavy metals”, that is, atomic elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, have been observed escaping from a hot jupiter.
Wasp-121bThe parent star of is hotter and brighter than our Sun. The strange planet is so dangerously close to its star that the temperature of its upper atmosphere rises to 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit. A burst of ultraviolet light from the parent star is heating up the tormented planet’s upper atmosphere, sending magnesium and iron gas howling into space. Observations made by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging spectrograph revealed the spectral signatures of magnesium and iron far, far away from the fiery giant planet. Worse still, the planet is so close to its stellar parent that it is doomed to be torn apart soon by the star’s gravitational tidal forces. In fact, the merciless and relentless gravitational forces are so powerful that they have changed the shape of the planet from a sphere to a soccer ball. Tea wasp-121 The system is almost 900 light years from Earth.
the observations of Wasp-121b represent the first time that “heavy metals” have been detected fleeing from a hot jupiter. Usually, hot jupiters they are still cool enough inside to condense heavy atomic elements into clouds. But this is not the case with the fiery Wasp 121 b. “Heavy metal have been seen in others hot jupiters before, but only in the lower atmosphere. So you don’t know if they are escaping or not. With wasp 121bwe see magnesium and iron gas so far from the plane that they are not gravitationally bound,” explained Dr. David Sing in a statement on August 1, 2019. NASA press release. Dr. Sing, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, is the principal investigator of the new study.
Ultraviolet light coming from the parent star warms the upper atmosphere and helps Heavy metal flee from their fiery host planet into the space between the stars. Also, escaping magnesium and iron gas can add to the rise in temperature, Dr. Sing added. “Thesis rails it will make the atmosphere more opaque in the ultraviolet, which could be contributing to the warming of the upper atmosphere,” he continued.
Unfortunately, the tormented fiery planet hugs its parent star so closely that it is about to be torn apart. “We chose this planet because it is very extreme. We thought we had the opportunity to see heavy elements escape. It is very hot and so favorable to observe, it is the best opportunity to find the presence of Heavy metal. We were mainly looking for magnesium, but there have been hints of iron in the atmospheres of other exoplanets. However, it was a surprise to see it clearly in the data and at such high altitudes so far from the planet. Tea Heavy metal they are escaping in part because the planet is so large and bloated that its gravity is relatively weak. This is a planet that is actively being stripped of its atmosphere,” Dr. Sing continued on August 1, 2019. NASA press release.
According to the terminology used by astronomers, a metal refers to any atomic element that is heavier than helium. Therefore, atomic elements such as oxygen, carbon, and neon are classified by astronomers as rails. The term metal it has a different meaning to astronomers than it does to chemists.
Strange Sizzling Gas Giants
hot jupiter Exoplanets are unlike any of the major planets orbiting our Sun. Before their initial discovery in 1995, astronomers thought that gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn could only be born far from their stellar parents, in the cooler outer regions of their planetary systems. Unlike Jupiter and Saturn, these massive gaseous roasters hug their parent stars so closely that it typically takes them less than three days to complete a single orbit. This means that one hemisphere of these distant alien worlds always faces its stellar parent, while the other side is always turned away, cloaked in an unchanging cloak of perpetual darkness.
For this reason, the day side of a hot jupiter it is considerably hotter than its night side, and of course the hottest area of all is the region closest to its dazzling parent star. It is thought that hot jupiters they are also tormented by strong easterly winds near their equators. This can sometimes shift the warm region to the east.
Following the surprising and historic discovery of dymidium, New theories were quickly proposed to explain the existence of these star-hugging gas giants. Some planet-hunting astronomers suggested that these exotic, sizzling worlds were actually gigantic moten rocks. However, other planetary scientists proposed that they were actually gas giant planets that were born about 100 times farther from their stars. Unfortunately, these unfortunate worlds were sent screaming towards their fiery stellar parents due to close collisions with other sister planets or, alternatively, by the gravitational jolt of a binary stellar companion to their own star.
Another theory, which has been devised, also suggests that hot jupiters they were originally born as inhabitants of the outer portions of their planetary systems, at a distance similar to that of Jupiter in our Sun’s own family. Unfortunately, these giant planets gradually lost energy due to destructive interactions with their protoplanetary accretion disks. These whirling, spinning disks are made of gas and dust, and they revolve around young stars, but they also serve as the birthplaces of baby planets. Neonatal gas giants, as a result of such interactions, begin to spiral closer and closer to the warm, well-lit inner regions of their planetary systems, closer to the gravitational embrace of their stars. Unfortunately, this migration means that the traveling planet is doomed and is destined to meet a violent and horrifying end when it is plunged into the roaring fires of its stellar parent.
Glowing hot jupiters They are a diverse batch that nonetheless display certain important attributes in common:
–By definition, they all have short orbital periods around their stellar parents.
–They all possess large masses.
–Many of them are low density.
–Most have circular orbits around their stars.
Besides, hot jupiters they are not generally found in orbit around small red dwarf stars–which are the most abundant true stars, as well as the smallest, inhabiting our Milky Way. Additionally, many of these exotic toasty planets are shrouded in strange and extreme atmospheres that result from their short orbital periods.
hot jupiters they are generally more common circular F- and G-type stars, but are less frequently seen orbiting K-type stars.
The case of the scorching, shaped like a soccer ball hot jupiter
Dr. Sing and his colleagues used HST Imaging Spectrograph to search, using ultraviolet light, for the spectral signature of magnesium and iron. This signature would be imprinted in the starlight, filtering through WASP-121 b’s atmosphere, as the distant world passed in front of (traveled) the dazzling face of its mother star.
This scorching and strangely shaped alien planet is also a perfect target for NASA’s next project. James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Tea JWST it will have the ability to search for infrared light, indicating the presence of water and carbon dioxide, both of which can be seen at longer, red wavelengths. Combining HST Y JWST The images would provide astronomers with a more complete inventory of the chemical elements that make up the soccer ball-shaped planet’s atmosphere.
Tea Wasp-121b study is part of the Panchromatic Comparative Treasury of Exoplanets (PanCET) survey, which is HST program that aims to hunt 20 exoplanetsthat vary in size from super lands (several times the mass of our planet) to that of Jupiter (more than 100 times the mass of our planet). This will be the first large-scale ultraviolet, visible, and infrared comparative study of distant alien worlds.
the observations of Wasp-121b contribute to the development of the story of how planets lose their primordial atmospheres. When planets are born, they trap an atmosphere containing gas that originates from the accretion disk from which the planet and its parent star arose. These primitive atmospheres are composed mainly of the primitive and light gases hydrogen and helium, which were born in the Big Bang of the birth of the Universe almost 14 billion years ago, and are the lightest and most abundant atomic elements. Hydrogen and helium are not classified as rails in the terminology used by astronomers. These primordial planetary atmospheres eventually dissipate as the baby planet moves ever closer to its dazzling parent star.
“Tea hot jupiters are made mostly of hydrogen, and hubble it is very sensitive to hydrogen, so we know that these planets can lose the gas relatively easily. But in the case of Wasp-121bthe hydrogen and helium gas is coming out, almost like a river, and it’s dragging these rails with them. It’s a very efficient mechanism for mass loss,” explained Dr. Sing on August 1, 2019. NASA press release.
The results of this study are published in the August 1, 2019, online edition of The Astronomical Journal.