Temperatures on the day side of the planet—which perpetually faces its star—are hot enough to vaporize iron.
An international team of researchers has shed new light on an extreme exoplanet located around 640 light-years away from Earth they believe may rain iron, according to a study.
As a result, temperatures on the day side are scorching, reaching more than 2,400 C —hot enough to vaporize metals like iron, which then evaporate into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, on the night side—which experiences perpetual darkness—temperatures are much lower, hovering around 1,500 C. "For the first time, we have evidence of the different chemistry taking place in the atmosphere of the day and night sides of a giant planet," Osorio said."The hot side of WASP-76b—which is the part that is always receiving the heat from the parent star—has iron vapor. At the same time, the planet is rotating and has strong atmospheric winds."
Christiane Helling—an astronomer with the Dutch Space Research Institut and Director of the Centre for Exoplanet Science at the University of St. Andrews, U.K., who was not involved in thestudy—described the research as a"very thorough investigation of high-resolution data from the ESPRESSO instrument."
"Cloud particle on exoplanets have been shown to be composed of a mix of minerals as the consequence of the enormous chemical richness of these atmospheres," she said."Such minerals lock up elements like magnesium, silicate, oxygen, titanium, et cetera, and a lot of iron, too.
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