Astronomers have made detailed observations of a very exciting exoplanet, detecting a rugged surface temperature in the region of 200,200 degrees Celsius (792 ફેર degrees Fahrenheit).
That temperature – measured by the European Space Agency’s characteristic exoplanet satellite (or CHOPS) – is enough to melt all rocks and metals, and turn them into aerated form.
While an exoplanet named WASP-189B is not as hot as the surface of our sun (6,000 degrees Celsius or 10,832 degrees Fahrenheit), it is basically as tasty as some small dwarf stars.
The new findings immediately recognized WASP-189b, one of the most extreme planets ever discovered. It has an orbit of only 7.7 days around its star, with permanent ‘day’ on one side and permanent ‘night’ on the other. It is also huge – about 1.6 times the size of Jupiter.
(ESA)
“WASP-189B is particularly interesting because it is a gas giant that orbits very close to its host star,” says Monica Lendl, an astrophysicist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. “It takes less than three days to circle its star, and the Earth is 20 times closer than the Sun.”
HD 133112 is the host star in question, more than 2,000 degrees Celsius (3,600 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than our Sun, and one of the hottest known planets to have a planetary system around it. Chipes also made an interesting discovery about this celestial body: it spins so fast that it is pulled outward at its equator.
The WASP-189B is very far away (326 light-years) and very close to the HD 133112 for direct observation, but Chappops knows some tricks. First, he observed an exoplanet passing behind his star: a spy. Then, he saw WASP-189b passing in front of his star: a transition.
From this reading the researchers were able to figure out some additional information about the luminosity, temperature, size, shape and orbital characteristics of the exoplanet as well as the stars orbiting it.
As it is on the scale of Jupiter but very close to its host star, and warmer, WASP-189B qualifies as the so-called hot Jupiter planet (you can see where the name comes from). Scientists are hoping that the information that CHEOPS has collected about WASP-189b will improve our understanding of hot Jupiters in general.
“Only a handful of planets exist around the stars, and this system is by far the brightest,” says Lendl. “WASP-189B is also a bright hot Jupiter that we can observe as it passes in front of or behind its star, making the whole system really interesting.”
The new Chio.P.S. One of the questions posed by the research is how the WASP-189B was formed in the first place – its instinct orbit indicates that it is formed more than the HD 133112 and then executed from within.
In addition to the treasure trove of data provided by this new study, it also shows how to measure brightness in deep space with a mind-boggling level of accuracy in mind with chops, working as intended and working well.
The satellite has many more missions to move forward, with hundreds of exoplanets in line for close observation. The data it collects should teach us more about our own solar system, as well as the planets outside it.
“The accuracy achieved with Cheoeps is amazing,” says Hayek Rauer, a planetary scientist at the DLR Institute Plaf Planetary Research in Germany. “Preliminary measurements already show that the instrument works better than expected. It allows us to learn more about these distant planets.”
Research has been published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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