Joshua Hawkins
Tue, February 1, 2022,
New data found by researching one of the most extreme exoplanets we know of could help us understand the complex atmospheric layers of others, including Earth-like planets.
According to a media release, a group of researchers has peered into the atmosphere of one of the most extreme planets. This exoplanet in question is WASP-189b. Researchers say it is a hot, Jupiter-like planet. The planet was first scrutinized using the CHEOPS space telescope. Now, researchers have discovered that WASP-189b has an atmosphere very similar to the Earth’s.
This exoplanet’s atmospheric layers could help us find more planets in the future
The research team, which consists of people from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva, recently analyzed WASP-189b’s atmosphere. Researchers from the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCRs) PlanetS also joined in. The team discovered that the exoplanet’s atmosphere was very similar to the Earth’s. Instead of only being one layer, as many believed before, the atmosphere was made of distinct 3D layers.
In-depth research into the exoplanet’s atmospheric layers was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. During their study, the team found that the planet featured an atmospheric layer very similar to the Earth’s Ozone layer.
“We measured the light coming from the planet’s host star and passing through the planet’s atmosphere,” Bibiana Prinoth said in a media statement. “The gases in its atmosphere absorb some of the starlight, similar to Ozone absorbing some of the sunlight in the Earth’s atmosphere”. Prinoth is the lead author of the study and a doctoral student at Lund University.
Prinoth says that the starlight then leaves a “fingerprint” behind. The researchers were able to study it using the HARPS spectrograph at the La Silla Observatory. They found that the gases left in the exoplanet’s atmospheric layers included iron, vanadium, chromium, manganese, and magnesium.
What it all means
Seeing an “Ozone layer” on a planet as hot as WASP-189b is surprising. After all, this planet is 20 times closer to its host star than the Earth is to the Sun. Because of how close it is, the planet experiences daytime temperatures as hot as 3,200 degrees Celsius. For comparison, Mercury, the planet closest to our Sun, only reaches temperatures of 430 degrees Celsius during the day.
This new information debunks old beliefs that exoplanet atmospheres were a uniform layer. Using the new data, researchers hope they can understand the atmospheres of exoplanets better. Additionally, they hope it will provide new knowledge about Earth-like exoplanets, too. That would include a better understanding of how those exoplanet’s atmospheric layers work. Unfortunately, many believe this requires innovation in data analysis techniques, as well as computer modeling and atmospheric theory.
Extreme alien world with metal atmosphere shows how weird the universe can be
The universe is drunk on its own power and needs to go home
John Loeffler
Computing Staff Writer
John (He/Him) is a Computing Staff Writer here at TechRadar and is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.
Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.
You can find him online on Twitter at @thisdotjohn
Currently playing: EVE Online, Sucker for Love: First Date, GTFO, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
The universe is drunk on its own power and needs to go home
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
By John Loeffler
When you think of air, you don't typically think of metal, but that's probably because you aren't on WASP-189b. To be clear, you'd also be very dead if you were.
WASP-189b is an exoplanet orbiting a star about 322 light-years away from us and it's what astronomers call a "hot Jupiter." Unlike our own gas giants, which orbit the sun on the outer part of our solar system, hot Jupiters are gas giants that orbit closely to their host stars. WASP-189b, for example, is about 20 times closer to its star as we are to the sun.
This produces very hot atmospheric temperatures on the daytime side of the planet, upward of 3,200 degrees Celsius. This is hot enough to boil metals like iron, chromium, and magnesium, which brings these elements into their gaseous states and allows them to create a layered atmosphere around the planet.
Researchers at the University of Bern, University of Geneva, and Lund University in Sweden discovered the extraordinary chemical composition of WASP-189b's atmosphere using data from the Characterising Exoplanets Satellite (CHEOPS) space telescope and the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph at Chile's La Silla Observatory.
"We measured the light coming from the planet’s host star and passing through the planet’s atmosphere," Bibiana Prinoth, a doctoral student at Lund University and the lead author of a new study in Nature Astronomy detailing the discovery, said in a statement.
"The gases in its atmosphere absorb some of the starlight, similar to ozone absorbing some of the sunlight in Earth’s atmosphere, and thereby leave their characteristic ‘fingerprint.’ With the help of HARPS, we were able to identify the corresponding substances.”
Among those identified were iron, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, and manganese. Also spotted was titanium oxide, which is particularly interesting to researchers.
"Titanium oxide absorbs short wave radiation, such as ultraviolet radiation," said study co-author Kevin Heng, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Bern. "Its detection could therefore indicate a layer in the atmosphere of WASP-189b that interacts with the stellar irradiation similarly to how the Ozone layer does on Earth."
Analysis: Extreme exoplanets challenge us to think differently about the universe
After spending centuries looking at the planets of our own solar system, we've developed something of a baseline for what we consider to be extreme environments, like Venus' crushing carbon dioxide atmosphere and runaway greenhouse effect trapping in temperatures of nearly 482 degrees Celsius.
The more we look at exoplanets though, the more apparent it becomes that Venus and Jupiter are only a glimpse of how drastic conditions on other worlds might be.
The idea of a hot Jupiter hadn't been considered until we first started identifying exoplanets out in the galaxy and found that not only do they exist but are pretty common.
Planets with metallic atmospheres shouldn't be any more of a surprise when you consider the abundance of iron in the universe. After all, it has a boiling point well below the temperature that most stars are capable of producing even at a significant distance, so it's perfectly logical that you're going to find planets with iron atmospheres.
It doesn't make it any less weird to contemplate, though, and part of the fun of learning about exoplanets is finding out just how weird the universe can be.
By John Loeffler
When you think of air, you don't typically think of metal, but that's probably because you aren't on WASP-189b. To be clear, you'd also be very dead if you were.
WASP-189b is an exoplanet orbiting a star about 322 light-years away from us and it's what astronomers call a "hot Jupiter." Unlike our own gas giants, which orbit the sun on the outer part of our solar system, hot Jupiters are gas giants that orbit closely to their host stars. WASP-189b, for example, is about 20 times closer to its star as we are to the sun.
This produces very hot atmospheric temperatures on the daytime side of the planet, upward of 3,200 degrees Celsius. This is hot enough to boil metals like iron, chromium, and magnesium, which brings these elements into their gaseous states and allows them to create a layered atmosphere around the planet.
Researchers at the University of Bern, University of Geneva, and Lund University in Sweden discovered the extraordinary chemical composition of WASP-189b's atmosphere using data from the Characterising Exoplanets Satellite (CHEOPS) space telescope and the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph at Chile's La Silla Observatory.
"We measured the light coming from the planet’s host star and passing through the planet’s atmosphere," Bibiana Prinoth, a doctoral student at Lund University and the lead author of a new study in Nature Astronomy detailing the discovery, said in a statement.
"The gases in its atmosphere absorb some of the starlight, similar to ozone absorbing some of the sunlight in Earth’s atmosphere, and thereby leave their characteristic ‘fingerprint.’ With the help of HARPS, we were able to identify the corresponding substances.”
Among those identified were iron, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, and manganese. Also spotted was titanium oxide, which is particularly interesting to researchers.
"Titanium oxide absorbs short wave radiation, such as ultraviolet radiation," said study co-author Kevin Heng, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Bern. "Its detection could therefore indicate a layer in the atmosphere of WASP-189b that interacts with the stellar irradiation similarly to how the Ozone layer does on Earth."
Analysis: Extreme exoplanets challenge us to think differently about the universe
After spending centuries looking at the planets of our own solar system, we've developed something of a baseline for what we consider to be extreme environments, like Venus' crushing carbon dioxide atmosphere and runaway greenhouse effect trapping in temperatures of nearly 482 degrees Celsius.
The more we look at exoplanets though, the more apparent it becomes that Venus and Jupiter are only a glimpse of how drastic conditions on other worlds might be.
The idea of a hot Jupiter hadn't been considered until we first started identifying exoplanets out in the galaxy and found that not only do they exist but are pretty common.
Planets with metallic atmospheres shouldn't be any more of a surprise when you consider the abundance of iron in the universe. After all, it has a boiling point well below the temperature that most stars are capable of producing even at a significant distance, so it's perfectly logical that you're going to find planets with iron atmospheres.
It doesn't make it any less weird to contemplate, though, and part of the fun of learning about exoplanets is finding out just how weird the universe can be.
John Loeffler
Computing Staff Writer
John (He/Him) is a Computing Staff Writer here at TechRadar and is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.
Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.
You can find him online on Twitter at @thisdotjohn
Currently playing: EVE Online, Sucker for Love: First Date, GTFO, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
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