(ORDO NEWS) — WASP-76b is a hot Jupiter exoplanet located 640 light-years from the solar system . This strange world is about 83% larger, yet 8% lighter than Jupiter.
WASP-76b orbits at a distance of about 0.033 astronomical units (AU) from its parent star, which is 11.5 times less than the average distance between Mercury and the Sun!
A year on WASP-76b lasts only 1.8 Earth days. Because of this, the atmosphere of the exoplanet is heated to a temperature of 2,000 to 2,430 degrees Celsius, and this is enough to evaporate some metals.
Spectral analysis of the atmosphere of WASP-76b using the NASA Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes showed the presence of ionized iron, potassium, calcium, lithium, magnesium, manganese and sodium.
The presence of iron vapor clearly indicates that in the lower atmosphere, the temperature of WASP-76b may be above 2,900 degrees Celsius.
In the past, WASP-76b was thought to be raining hot iron, but recent observations have not confirmed this information; on the night side the temperature is too high for iron vapor to condense.
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