Put down those finger horns. “Iron Winds and Metal Rain” might be an awesome title for a heavy metal band’s album, but it’s also a pretty accurate weather prediction for a terrifying exoplanet called WASP-76b. The discovery of iron winds on this world shows just how “alien” some planets outside our solar system can be.
Located about 634 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces, the strange and hostile exoplanet or “exoplanet“has a temperature of about 4,350 degrees Fahrenheit (2,400 degrees Celsius), hot enough to vaporize iron and cause iron rain to hit the planet’s surface.
These frightening temperatures come from WASP-76b’s proximity to its star, which qualifies it as a “hot Jupiter.” This proximity also causes the planet to be tidally locked to its star, meaning one side always faces its sun, which is constantly emitting radiation.
Recently, a team of scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the National Centre of Competence in Planetary Research (NCCR PlanetS) have discovered the presence of high-speed winds that carry vaporized iron from the planet’s permanent “day side” to the relatively cooler “night side”, which constantly faces space.
Upon reaching the night side of WASP-76b, the iron condenses and falls as droplets of liquid metal due to the cooler temperatures on the planet’s permanently dark side.
“This is the first time such detailed optical observations have been made of the dayside of this exoplanet, providing important data on the structure of its atmosphere,” said lead author Ana Rita Costa Silva, a doctoral student at the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço in a statement. “Our observations show the presence of a strong iron wind, likely driven by a hot spot in the atmosphere.”
Related: James Webb Telescope reveals rare atmosphere resembling “rotten eggs” around nearby hellish planet
Silva and colleagues reached their conclusion by observing light from the planet’s dayside using the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) instrument mounted on the Very Large Telescope (VLT).
ESPRESSO is renowned for its precision and stability, allowing the team to collect high-resolution spectra of WASP-76b. These spectra reveal the signature of iron atoms moving through the hot Jupiter’s atmosphere. This technique, called “high-resolution emission spectroscopy,” has proven to be a powerful tool for studying exoplanetary atmospheres.
“ESPRESSO’s ability to perform such precise measurements is crucial,” explains team member Christophe Lovis, UNIGE astronomer and NCCR PlanetS crew member. “This level of precision allows us to explore dynamic processes in the atmospheres of exoplanets like WASP-76 b with an unprecedented level of detail.”
Since WASP-76b was first discovered in 2013, it has been at the forefront of exoplanet investigations. It is never far from the headlines and continues to surprise with its harsh conditions, which make some of us grateful to live in a relatively calm environment. solar system.
For example, this April, researchers observed a rainbow-like effect called “glory” in the atmosphere of the violent planet. It was the first time that glories, colorful, concentric rings of light that occur only under strange conditions, had been seen outside the solar system.
This and the new iron wind discovery show just how complex exoplanet atmospheres can be. The new iron wind discovery, in particular, could help scientists build 3D models of these exoplanet climates, which could one day help them predict similar phenomena occurring on other hot Jupiters and other types of exoplanets.
“The work on WASP-76 b shows us just how extreme the atmospheric conditions are on very hot Jupiters,” concluded discovery team member David Ehrenreich, a researcher and member of the NCCR PlanetS team. “In-depth analysis of this type of planet gives us valuable information for better understanding the planet’s climate as a whole.”
The team’s research was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Originally posted on Space.com.
