Data from NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope continues to unveil two hellish planets, with environments and climates more extreme than any fictional planet.
The first planet revealed in a new publication in the journal Nature is named WASP-178b. This is a super-hot Jupiter located 1,300 light-years away in the constellation Lupus.
According to Sci-News, the research team led by Dr. David Sing from Johns Hopkins University (USA) discovered that this planet has two completely different sides, as it is “locked” to its parent star, similar to how the Moon is locked to Earth, always showing only one face to its “mother.”
Artist’s illustration of a “hot Jupiter,” a gas giant exoplanet like Jupiter, extremely hot due to its proximity to its parent star – (Image: NASA/ESA/LEAH HUSTAK, STScI)
On the daytime side, the atmosphere of WASP-178b is cloudless and enriched with silicon monoxide (SiO), which on Earth exists in crystalline form. However, the extreme heat on this planet causes it to vaporize.
On the eternally dark side, SiO is “cooler” and condenses into hail, falling continuously. Moreover, this side experiences relentless tornadoes with superstorm speeds of 3,219 km/h.
However, at dawn and dusk on the dark side, slightly warmer temperatures allow the hail from the rains to evaporate, then continue to condense into clouds, causing rain in a manner similar to the water cycle on Earth.
The second planet is a hot Jupiter named KELT-20b, introduced in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, located 400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus.
On this planet, the ultraviolet outbursts from its parent star are creating a thermal layer in the atmosphere, heating metals that are in a vaporized state, turning this already scorching planet into a true hell.
Dr. Guangwei Fu, an astronomer from the University of Maryland in College Park (USA), stated that this is the first evidence of a planet whose atmosphere is directly influenced by its parent star.
