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)
Related Stories
WASP-104b is Darker than Charcoal
By analysing the K2 short-cadence data from Campaign 14 we detect phase-curve modulation in the light curve of the hot-Jupiter host star WASP-104. The ellipsoidal modulation is detected with high significance and in agreement with theoretical expectations, while Doppler beaming and reflection modulations are detected tentatively. We show that the visual geometric albedo is lower than 0.03 at 95% confidence, making it one of the least-reflective planets found to date. The light curve also exhibits a rotational modulation, implying a stellar rotational period likely to be near 23 or 46 days. In addition, we refine the system parameters and place tight upper limits for transit timing and duration variations, starspot occultation events, and additional transiting planets.
WASP-104b's albedo was previously thought to be 0.4 (absorbing 60% of incoming light).
Also at ScienceAlert.
Related: NASA Finds a Pitch-Black Hot Jupiter Exoplanet (WASP-12b)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @09:07PM
They received the Stone's tune from our broadcasts and took it literally: painted it black.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @09:30PM (7 children)
Another fine example of scientists being wrong, and apparently they had confidence in their wrongness.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:00AM (4 children)
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...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:58AM (3 children)
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)
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)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday September 26 2017, @11:58AM
Just trying to ward off the pedants.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 26 2017, @02:51AM (1 child)
And what? Don't keep us in suspense, drop that other shoe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @06:34AM
TMB:"I am your Father! khallow. No, seriously, without me, you would not exist! Hey, come back here, you ungrateful little. . . . BLANG!!! Poor khallow, shot in the back! Oh, the tragedy! The Pathos! The fall in the stock market!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 25 2017, @09:50PM
Even about things miles away never mind hundred, thousands, millions , billions or fucking light years away, that we know ANYTHING AT ALL about objects that far away is miraculous, that you might be wrong is not a surprise at all , we fail to understand many things that is why science keeps getting funding and you have a job, stop being being an AW and proclaiming it's all new ! of course it is that is the fucking point!
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday September 26 2017, @05:06PM
I would expect that such a situation would lead to nuclear ignition fairly quickly.
If the heat expands the atmosphere so much that there isn't much of a gravity crush, then maybe you can't really add heat to that system without shedding atmosphere.
The winds must be horrendous. The fact that the planet is tidally locked might not even matter if the winds become high enough to distribute enough heat to keep the planet intact.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:34PM
> which managed to list temperatures in Celsius in its blurb about the exoplanet.
I didn't immediately realize TFS's extract, using non-SI, was from NASA.