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Astronomers Discover Planet with Water Vapor in Atmosphere, Rotating Every 23 Hours

KILAT.COM – A planet has successfully captivated astronauts with the presence of water vapor in its atmosphere. The James Webb Space Telescope has again captured images of distant planets outside our solar system.

The newly discovered planet, called WASP-18 b, was first discovered in 2009 and is an ultra-hot gas giant at least 10 times larger than Jupiter.

This planet is about 400 light years from Earth. What makes this planet unique is, if the earth takes 365 days to go around the sun, this planet only takes 23 hours to go around its star.

Another thing is that water vapor was found in the planet’s atmosphere by the James Webb Space Telescope during the planet’s rotation while behind its star and subsequent reappearances.

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Scientists can analyze the combined light from stars and planets by making temperature maps of how the planets move around them. They could only fine-tune their measurements by using the starlight as the planet passed behind them.

While making observations, the astronomers concentrated on WASP-18 b for approximately six hours with the help of Webb’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS).

According to NASA, the planet always faces its star, just as the side of the Moon always faces Earth.

It also shows that the temperature map, which starts at the hottest point on the planet and ends at the terminator, shows significant temperature changes of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius.

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Reported by Kilat.com from Indiatoday, Megan Mansfield, an author of the finding paper said that “JWST gives us the obligation to make maps of hot giant planets like WASP-18 b that are much more detailed than before,”

The research team observed temperature gradients on the planet’s day side and found that there may be barriers preventing effective heat transfer to the night side. This resistance may come from wind resistance.

Ryan Challener, a writer who focuses on the same field, also stated that there were no east-west winds seen on the WASP-18 b brightness map.

He points to atmospheric drag as a possible explanation. Dan said that the only possible explanation was a strong magnetic field.

2023-06-03 07:42:00
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