Over time, researchers have discovered more and more interesting exoplanets. WASP-76b is one of the most extreme, with a daytime temperature of over 2,000 degrees Celsius.
A team of researchers discovered that it is even more bizarre than first thought! The planet is magnetically locked to its host star, so it is surrounded by intense winds. They contain large amounts of iron atoms that pass from the lower to the upper layers of the atmosphere.
Exoplanets exist outside the Solar System and orbit other stars. The first confirmed discovery was in the 1990s, and since then more than 5,200 have been discovered.
Many of these are gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn, and others are small, rocky, Earth-like planets, perhaps less habitable.
As more advanced telescopes and detection techniques are developed, not only will the level of detection increase even further, but so will our ability to .
One of the most extreme exoplanets
WASP-76b, has received a lot of attention lately. It is an ultra-heated gas giant located 640 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Pisces. It was discovered in 2013 and has a very close orbit to its host star, completing one orbit in just 1.8 Earth days.
The approach to the star led to extreme daytime temperatures of over 2,000 degrees Celsius. A team of astronomers, including some from the University of Geneva, announced in the journal that they have discovered evidence of intense iron winds in the atmosphere of the planet WASP-76b.
Astronomers have focused on this planet since its discovery to try to understand the mechanisms in the atmosphere of this very hot Jupiter world. It really is a fascinating world and even a rainbow has been detected there, it says.
The team focused on the daytime side, where temperatures are much higher. They used the ESPRESSO spectrograph which was installed on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.
Extreme levels of radiation from the host star
It is known for its stability and high spectral resolution, so it can distinguish extremely fine levels of detail in a stellar spectrum.
Using a technique known as high-resolution emission spectroscopy, the team studied the spectrum of visible light. The approach is based on the detection of emission lines in a spectrum and allows the chemical composition to be decoded.
Here they detected the chemical signature of iron and found that it was moving from the lower levels to the upper layers of the atmosphere.
help us further develop our understanding of the range of environments on these alien worlds. As a gas giant, findings on WASP-76b help us learn more about the climates of worlds that are affected by extreme levels of radiation from their host star.
