Scientists have discovered new details about a hellish lava planet light-years away from Earth that is unbearably hot, rains rocks and has lava oceans more than 60 miles deep.
I understand, hint the jokes, however K2-141 b, the planet in concern, isn’t anywhere near us.
The exoplanet, suggesting it is outside our planetary system, hosts one of the most “extreme” environments discovered, according to a research study very first released in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society by researchers from McGill University in Montreal, York University in Toronto and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in India.
Artist’s impression of the lava planet K2-141 b. At the center of the big illuminated area there is an ocean of molten rock overlain by an environment of rock vapour. Supersonic winds blow towards the freezing and airless nightside, condensing into rock rain and snow, which sluggishly recede to the most popular area of the lava ocean. (JulieRoussy, McGill Graphic Design and Getty Images )
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“Among the most extreme planets discovered beyond the edges of our solar system are lava planets,” McGill University described in a news release, “fiery hot worlds that circle so close to their host star that some regions are likely oceans of molten lava.”
K2-141 b likewise has supersonic winds speeds in excess of 3,000 miles per hour.
Neptune has the greatest wind speeds of any planet in our planetary system, which can go beyond 1,100 miles per hour– 1.5 times the speed of noise, according to NASA.
Theplanet’s surface area, environment and ocean all seem made of rocks and the “extreme weather forecasted by their analysis could permanently change the surface and atmosphere of K2-141b over time,” the McGill release stated.
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“The study is the first to make predictions about weather conditions on K2-141b that can be detected from hundreds of light years away with next-generation telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope,” lead author Giang Nguyen, a PhD trainee at York University who worked under the guidance of McGill University Professor NicolasCowan on the research study, stated.
More than half of the planet likewise has consistent daytime due to the fact that it’s so near to its host star so it’s “gravitationally locked in place,” and the exact same side constantly deals with the star.
The dark side of the planet, additionally, has temperature levels that can go lower than -300 degrees Fahrenheit.
The least expensive temperature level ever taped by a weather condition station on Earth was -128 degrees F in the Antarctic near the South Pole in 1983, according to the American Geophysical Union.
In the exact same method water in the world vaporizes into the environment and returns as rain, the planet’s rock vapor environment vaporizes and rains down as rocks.
“On K2-141b, the mineral vapor formed by evaporated rock is swept to the frigid night side by supersonic winds and rocks ‘rain’ back down into a magma ocean,” the release stated. “The resulting currents flow back to the hot day side of the exoplanet, where rock evaporates once more.”
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“All rocky planets, including Earth, started off as molten worlds but then rapidly cooled and solidified. Lava planets give us a rare glimpse at this stage of planetary evolution,” stated Professor Cowan of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
