Storm-Tortured Exoplanet With Iron And Silicate Clouds Observed In Constellation Of Pegasus

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – A storm-tortured exoplanet HR8799e, which is a world unlike any found in our Solar System, has been observed by astronomers using GRAVITY instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI).

This first direct and very detailed observation of an exoplanet using optical interferometry, reveals a complex exoplanetary atmosphere with clouds of iron and silicates swirling in a planet-wide storm.

The GRAVITY instrument on ESO’s VLTI has made the first direct observation of an exoplanet using optical interferometry. The technique presents unique possibilities for characterising many of the exoplanets known today. Image: ESO/L. Calçada

The exoplanet was discovered in 2010 orbiting the young main-sequence star HR8799, which lies around 129 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus.

HR8799e is a ‘super-Jupiter’, a world unlike any found in our Solar System, that is both more massive and much younger than any planet orbiting the Sun.

At only 30 million years old, this baby exoplanet is young enough to give scientists a window onto the formation of planets and planetary systems. The exoplanet is thoroughly inhospitable — leftover energy from its formation and a powerful greenhouse effect heat HR8799e to a hostile temperature of roughly 1000 °C.

“Our analysis showed that HR8799e has an atmosphere containing far more carbon monoxide than methane — something not expected from equilibrium chemistry,” explains team leader Sylvestre Lacour researcher CNRS at the Observatoire de Paris – PSL and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, in a press release.

“We can best explain this surprising result with high vertical winds within the atmosphere preventing the carbon monoxide from reacting with hydrogen to form methane.”

This is the first time that optical interferometry has been used to reveal details of an exoplanet and it gave the results ten times more detailed than earlier observations.

“Our observations suggest a ball of gas illuminated from the interior, with rays of warm light swirling through stormy patches of dark clouds,” elaborates Lacour. “Convection moves around the clouds of silicate and iron particles, which disaggregate and rain down into the interior. This paints a picture of a dynamic atmosphere of a giant exoplanet at birth, undergoing complex physical and chemical processes.”

Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer