Home » Health » Rain on this exoplanet is thought to be from liquid gems, experts say

Rain on this exoplanet is thought to be from liquid gems, experts say

Jakarta – Recent research shows, one of the exoplanets WASP-121b has metallic clouds and rain made of molten gems. The study explains how water circulates between the two sides of the planet.

The planet WASP-121B was first discovered in 2015. This planet is similar to the planet Jupiter, which has a very hot temperature and has a mass and diameter greater than the other largest plates.

Because of its characteristics, researchers continue to study it. The planet has an atmosphere consisting of water vapor that glows and turns into a ball due to the strong gravitational pull of the star that orbits it.

Every 30 hours WASP-121b rotates one orbit, much like the moon does about Earth. This results in one side of the planet experiencing daylight and facing the star. The other side experiences permanent night and faces the sky.

“The planet Jupiter has a very bright day but at night it is very different. The night side of WASP-121b is about 10 times dimmer than the daytime side,” said Tansu Daylan, a researcher in astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Extraordinary Water Cycle

On Earth, evaporation of water is carried up to the clouds and then causes rain. While in WASP-121bevaporation of water occurs more extreme.

Water atoms disintegrate due to the scorching temperatures on planet WASP-121b during the day. Then the atoms are carried to the night side by winds with a speed of 17,703 kilometers per hour.

There the water molecules gather to form water again before being pushed into daylight again. “These winds are much faster than the flow of our jets, and may be able to move clouds across the entire planet in about 20 hours,” Daylan said.

Extreme temperature differences on the planet also lead to the formation of metal clouds made of iron and corundum. Corundum is a mineral in rubies and sapphires.

Much like the swirling water vapor in WASP-121b, this metallic cloud may be propelled into daylight where the metal vaporizes into a gas. Before the clouds move from the night side, they rain down the molten gems.

“With these observations, we really get a global view of the meteorology of an exoplanet,” said Thomas Mikal Evans, a German researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

“Although there are many exoplanets, we can only study a small part of them because the research is difficult to do,” added Mikal.

Weather in WASP-121b

The study also revealed extreme differences between day and night temperatures on the planet WASP-121b. It is researched through the water cycle. During the day the temperature on the planet reaches 2,227 degrees Celsius. While in the deepest layer of the atmosphere it reaches 3,227 degrees Celsius.

While at night the situation becomes cooler, with the hottest temperature being 1,527 degrees Celsius to 1,227 degrees Celsius in the upper atmosphere.

Astronomers plan to observe the planet WASP-121b in late 2022 with the James Webb Space Telescope.

“It’s very interesting to study planets like WASP-121b which is very different from other planets in our solar system, because it shows how the atmosphere behaves under extreme conditions,” said researcher Joanna Barstow from the Open University in the UK.

Watch Videos “Is it true that there are aliens on 3 neighboring planets of Earth?
[Gambas:Video 20detik]
(atj/pal)

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.