Researchers investigate an 'ultra-hot Jupiter' with iron rain and calcium wind
640 light years away, the planet is larger than Jupiter but orbits closer to its sun than Mercury
Recent observations of a "hot-Jupiter" exoplanet discovered in 2016 have revealed that it is so hot researchers have been able to detect vaporized calcium in its atmosphere.
The exoplanet, identified as WASP 76b, is a gaseous ultra-hot planet slightly larger than our solar system's largest planet, Jupiter. It was discovered in 2016 and is 640 light years from Earth. It orbits its star every 1.8 Earth days and is about 30 times closer to its star than Earth is to our sun. In fact it is even much closer to its star than Mercury, the closest planet in our solar system to the sun.
As a result it is blasted by heat from its star which makes it extremely hot. However the planet is tidally locked, it has one side that faces its star all the time, and one that faces away. A previous temperature estimate for the hot side was 2400 C. The cool side, or dark side was thought to be a mere 1300 C.
Iron rain and calcium wind
Researchers had previously known that it was hot enough to vaporize iron in its atmospehre, so that the iron rains down on the planet. But scientists report something even more unusual about WASP 76b in a new study.
When analyzing data with the Gemini telescope in Hawaii, scientists including Emily Diebert, a PhD candidate in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Toronto, observed a peculiar chemical signature in the light shining through the exoplanet's atmosphere. It was caused by ionised calcium in the planet's upper atmosphere.
Hotter than...
The calcium comes from within the planet and according to Diebert, suggests that the planet is much hotter than previous estimates and calcium is being melted — or vaporized — off into the atmosphere.
More research is required to better understand this process and obtain a more accurate measurement of the planet's temperature.
Produced and written by Mark Crawley