Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

NASA Finds a Pitch-Black Hot Jupiter Exoplanet

posted by mrpg on Monday September 25 2017, @09:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the black-hot dept.

takyon writes:

NASA has found that a gas giant exoplanet discovered in 2008 traps around 94% of the visible light that hits its atmosphere:

The oddball exoplanet, called WASP-12b, is one of a class of so-called "hot Jupiters," gigantic, gaseous planets that orbit very close to their host star and are heated to extreme temperatures. The planet's atmosphere is so hot that most molecules are unable to survive on the blistering day side of the planet, where the temperature is 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, clouds probably cannot form to reflect light back into space. Instead, incoming light penetrates deep into the planet's atmosphere where it is absorbed by hydrogen atoms and converted to heat energy.

"We did not expect to find such a dark exoplanet," said Taylor Bell of McGill University and the Institute for Research on Exoplanets in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, lead researcher of the Hubble study. "Most hot Jupiters reflect about 40 percent of starlight."

But the planet's nighttime side is a different story. WASP-12b has a fixed day side and night side because it orbits so close to the star that it is tidally locked. The nighttime side is more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit cooler, which allows water vapor and clouds to form. Previous Hubble observations of the day/night boundary detected evidence of water vapor and possibly clouds and hazes in the atmosphere. WASP-12b is about 2 million miles away from its star and completes an orbit once a day.

"This new Hubble research further demonstrates the vast diversity among the strange population of hot Jupiters," Bell said. "You can have planets like WASP-12b that are 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit and some that are 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, and they're both called hot Jupiters. Past observations of hot Jupiters indicate that the temperature difference between the day and night sides of the planet increases with hotter day sides. This previous research suggests that more heat is being pumped into the day side of the planet, but the processes, such as winds, that carry the heat to the night side of the planet don't keep up the pace."

Also at Science Magazine, which managed to list temperatures in Celsius in its blurb about the exoplanet.

WASP-12b (and check out the file history for this image).

The Very Low Albedo of WASP-12b from Spectral Eclipse Observations with Hubble (DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa876c) (DX)

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
NASA Finds a Pitch-Black Hot Jupiter Exoplanet | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 12 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:00AM (4 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:00AM (#572853) Journal

    And because they were wrong about this, all science, everywhere, is wrong also right? Climate change is a hoax, in particular, riiiiight? Fuck, you're lazy. Say it if that's what you mean.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Troll=1, Insightful=1, Touché=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   3  

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:58AM (3 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:58AM (#572972) Homepage
    I'm also trying to imagine how science can progress without prior misconceptions being replaced by new conclusions. Clearly GPP finds that an unacceptable state of affairs.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:51AM (2 children)

      by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:51AM (#573010) Journal

      I'm trying to imagine how somebody can have such a lack of confidence in "science" while TYPING ON THE FUCKING INTERNET. I mean seriously, how much of a brain-dead skin-breather do you have to be to sit there blithely dissing all of "science" using a miraculously complex and microscopically precise product of science[1] to people all over the world via an incomprehensibly vast, global network of scientifically-derived infrastructure? It's like denying the existence of cows while wearing leather, eating a burger and riding a cow. In the middle of a massive field of cows. Each one of which having "THIS IS A COW" painted on the side.

      Of course, if OP was in fact posting to SN using nothing more than a pentagram of candles and supernatural incantations, then I apologise unreservedly.

      [1] Well, product of engineering if we're getting technical, but where would engineering be without science?

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 26 2017, @10:51AM (1 child)

        by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Tuesday September 26 2017, @10:51AM (#573028) Homepage
        Your slinking from "science" to "engineering" was a curious one, because the science that makes such engineering work is quantum mechanics, which, given that even Einstein found it hard to get his head around, could perhaps be considered the extremest of the hard sciences. (And I'm thinking not just of the gates in a CPU, but also the photonics in the backbones.)
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves