Astronomers have discovered that the hottest of all exoplanets KELT-9b, makes the molecules in the atmosphere of the planet rip apart. Located 670 light-years away within our Milky Way Galaxy, it has three times the mass of Jupiter. The temperature there is as high as 4,300°C which is significantly more than that of stars and planets. The new study led by Parmentier was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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KELT-9b was initially uncovered in 2017 using the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) and astronomers, in their new study, used infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Gas giant exoplanets with a very high surface temperature due to the proximity to their host star are known as ‘hot Jupiter’. They make molecules of hydrogen disintegrate in the dayside and reform only after flowing into the night side of the planet.
The lead author of the study Megan Mansfield from the University of Chicago said, “There are some other hot Jupiters and ultra-hot Jupiters that are not quite as hot but still warm enough that this effect should be taking place.”
Researchers were able to observe subtle variations in the heat and differences in the two regions facing towards and away from its host star. This extreme nature itself makes KELT-9b different compared to other exoplanets.
More studies will be imperative in grasping the duality of these ultrahot worlds, and the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope might assist further research in ultrahot Jupiters.
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An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. This was followed by the confirmation of a different planet, originally detected in 1988. As of 1 January 2020, there are 4,160 confirmed exoplanets in 3,090 systems, with 676 systems having more than one planet. There are many methods for detecting exoplanets. Transit photometry and Doppler spectroscopy have found the most, but these methods suffer from a clear observational bias favouring the detection of planets near the star; thus, 85% of the exoplanets detected are inside the tidal locking zone. In several cases, multiple planets have been observed around a star. About 1 in 5 Sun-like stars have an “Earth-sized” planet in the habitable zone. Assuming there are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, it can be hypothesized that there are 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way. More Info
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