The Hubble Space Telescope is known to have discovered intriguing worlds in our Milky Way Galaxy that pose a challenge to ground-based telescopes. The flying observatory has now explored the atmospheres of two planets similar to Jupiter.
The temperatures on these planets are so high that even one of the hardest metals, titanium, can vaporize. According to NASA, these planets have the hottest planetary atmospheres ever seen. Astronomers used Hubble to observe WASP-178b, which is about 1,300 light-years from Earth and has an atmosphere rich in silicon monoxide gas.
Known as AB Aurigae b, the newly formed planet is embedded in a protoplanetary planet with unique spiral structures orbiting a young star estimated to be 2 million years old.
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Astronomers stated in a study published in the magazine Nature that the daylight atmosphere remains clear, but the nighttime atmosphere spins at super-hurricane speeds in excess of 2,000 miles per hour.
This protoplanet is about nine times the size of Jupiter and orbits its parent star at a distance of 8.6 billion miles, more than twice the distance between our sun and Pluto. This has led scientists to believe that the instability of the disk allowed this planet to form so far from its host star. The findings also contrast sharply with the prediction of planet formation by the widely accepted nuclear accretion model.
Exoplanet KELT-20b is being roasted.
At a distance of 456 light-years, this planet orbits so close to its parent star that its atmosphere is over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit!
Read more about Hubble’s studies of ultra-hot exoplanets: pic.twitter.com/w8rl2WVsQT
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) Apr 6, 2022
Astronomers have revealed the findings of a superhot Jupiter, KELT-20b, about 400 light-years away, in a report published in Astrophysical Journal Letters† They found that a flash of ultraviolet light from its parent star forms a thermal layer in the atmosphere, similar to Earth’s stratosphere, using the Hubble Space Telescope.
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On Earth, the ozone layer absorbs the sun’s UV rays, raising temperatures in a layer between 11 and 50 kilometers above the surface. The scenario is different on the KELT-20b. UV light from the star heats metals in the planet’s atmosphere, resulting in a very strong thermal inversion layer.
In a news story, lead researcher Thayne Currie of the Subaru Telescope and Eureka Scientific said: commentary, “Nature is cunning; she can make planets in different ways.”
COVER IMAGE: NASA HUBBLE/Twitter