Hot Exoplanet WASP-121b Is Shaped Like A Football

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com –  Hot exoplanet WASP-121b is sending heavy metals such as iron and magnesium into space.

The distant planet’s atmosphere is so hot that metal is vaporizing and escaping the planet’s gravitational pull. The intense gravity of the planet’s host star has also deformed the sizzling planet into a football shape.

This artist’s illustration shows WASP-121b, a distant world that is losing magnesium and iron gas from its atmosphere. The observations represent the first time that heavy metals have been detected escaping from a “hot Jupiter,” which is a large, gaseous exoplanet that orbits very close to its host star. WASP-121b’s orbit is so close that the star’s gravity is nearly ripping the planet apart, giving the planet an oblique football shape. Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted (STScI)

The new observations, made by an international team of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, describe the first known instance of heavy metal gas streaming away from a “hot Jupiter,” which is a nickname for large, gaseous exoplanets that orbit very close to their host stars.

“This planet is a prototype for ultra-hot Jupiters. These planets are so heavily irradiated by their host stars, they’re almost like stars themselves,” University of Maryland Astronomy Professor Drake Deming,  said in a press release.

“The planet is being evaporated by its host star to the point that we can see metal atoms escaping the upper atmosphere where they can interact with the planet’s magnetic field. This presents an opportunity to observe and understand some very interesting physics.”

Normally, hot Jupiter planets are still cool enough inside to condense heavier elements such as magnesium and iron into clouds that remain in the planet’s atmosphere. But that’s not the case with WASP-121b, which is orbiting so close to its host star that the planet’s upper atmosphere reaches a blazing 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit. The planet is so close, in fact, that it is being ripped apart by the star’s gravity, giving the planet an oblique football shape. The WASP-121 star system resides about 900 light-years from Earth.

“Heavy metals have been seen in other hot Jupiters before, but only in the lower atmosphere,” explained lead researcher David Sing of Johns Hopkins University.

“With WASP-121b, we see magnesium and iron gas so far away from the planet that they’re not gravitationally bound. The heavy metals are escaping partly because the planet is so big and puffy that its gravity is relatively weak. This is a planet being actively stripped of its atmosphere.”

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Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff