Scientists Find a Weird Super-Hot Jupiter Exoplanet With Earth-Like Atmosphere That's So Near Its Star

Astronomers using the CHEOPS satellite telescope examined exoplanet WASP-189b's atmosphere and found that it's just as strange as the Earth-like planet below it.

The researchers observed the light from a neighboring star that was incredibly hot.

WASP-189b is among the oddest of the nearly 4,000 exoplanets found so far, Digital Trends said.

This super-hot Jupiter is so near its star that its surface temperature might reach 3,200 degrees Celsius, hot enough for iron to vaporize.

Researchers detailed their study, titled "Titanium Oxide and Chemical Inhomogeneity in the Atmosphere of the Exoplanet Wasp-189b," in Nature Astronomy.

(Photo : JODY AMIET/AFP via Getty Images)
TOPSHOT - A Soyouz rocket lift-off from Europe's launchpad in Kourou, French Guiana, on December 18, 2019, with Europe's CHEOPS planet-hunting satellite on board. - The 30-centimetre (12-inch) telescope has been designed to measure the density, composition, and size of numerous planets beyond our solar system, so-called exoplanets. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), CHEOPS will observe bright stars that are already known to be orbited by planets.

Exoplanet WASP-189b's Weird Atmosphere

WASP-189b is 322 light-years away from Earth, according to CNN.

Scientists revealed that the planet is 20 times closer to its host star than the Earth is to the Sun and has a daytime temperature of 3200ºC (5,792ºF) in the 2020 CHEOPS mission.

The researchers were able to get closer to the atmosphere of this exoplanet using the HARPS spectrograph.

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Bibiana Prinoth, the study's main author and a Ph.D. student at Lund University, said the scientists analyzed light emanating from the planet's host star and traveling through the planet's atmosphere.

"The gases in its atmosphere absorb some of the starlight, similar to Ozone absorbing some of the sunlight in Earth's atmosphere, and thereby leave their characteristic 'fingerprint,'" Prinoth said in a statement.

Odd Fingerprints of Titanium Oxide in Exoplanet Due To High Winds

IFLScience said titanium oxide has been connected to an ozone-like layer and stratosphere-like layers on other exoplanets, making this discovery extremely fascinating. These discoveries, however, went a step further, uncovering evidence of other layers.

Research co-author Kevin Heng, professor of astrophysics at the University of Bern and a member of NCCR PlanetS, explained in the same statement that titanium oxide absorbs shortwave radiation, such as ultraviolet light.

Prinoth and his colleagues noticed that the 'fingerprints' of the various gases were somewhat different from what we expected. Experts suspect that high winds and other processes are to blame for the changes.

The researchers believe that the fingerprints of different gases were altered in various ways. After all, they exist in different layers, like how the fingerprints of water vapor and ozone on Earth would appear differently altered from afar.

Observations also implied that a layer in the WASP-189b atmosphere interacts with solar irradiation similarly to the Earth's ozone layer, Heng said.

Many people don't know about exoplanet atmospheres, and to be fair, the atmospheres of the Solar System's gas giants are still a mystery. This new study elucidates how these faraway worlds are unlikely to have a single-layer atmosphere, emphasizing the importance of appreciating their three-dimensional complexity.