Rare Earth Metal 'Terbium' Found in Distant, Wild Exoplanet KELT-9b, Study Says

KELT-9b, a wild and distant exoplanet in the Milky Way Galaxy, has been seen to harbor rare and distinct Earth metals, including terbium.

Terbium Found in KELT-9b

Astronomers were able to find terbium floating in vaporized metal clouds in KELT-9b's atmosphere, as reported by Science Alert. It is the first time for this remarkably rare element to be spotted in a far world.

According to Sci.News, astronomers were able to come up with novel and more-refined analysis techniques that enable them to know more about this distant exoplanet. By utilizing the said techniques, they were able to filter out strong signals and find seven distinct elements in total. These included hydrogen, magnesium, sodium, chromium, calcium, iron, and terbium.

Sci.News adds that terbium is a rare, malleable, ductile, and silvery-white Earth metal. First discovered by Carl Gustaf Mosander back in 1843, the metal is considered part of lanthanides.

Nicholas Borsato, a Ph.D. student from Lund University, notes that being able to spot terbium in the atmosphere of this exoplanet is quite a surprise. On the Earth, this element is remarkably rare and can be typically found in traces mixed with other elements. In fact, it is estimated to be around 0.00012% abundant over the Earth's crust.

Being able to detect such a rare element in a different world is quite interesting because heavy metals, such as terbium, only result from violent conditions, such as a collision of a neutron star duo or an explosion of a supernova.

The novel method may offer more opportunities to dig deeper into other exoplanets' atmospheres.

The paper is set to be published in the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal. In the meantime, it is still in the pre-print server arXiv.

KELT-9b Exoplanet

Situated around 670 light years away from the Earth, KELT-9b is considerably one of the most extreme and wild exoplanets. Science Alert reports that this world is known to be as hot as Jupiter, which is a gas giant that is closely orbiting its host star. Sci.News also adds, however, that the mass of KELT-9b is around 2.8 times that of Jupiter. However, its density is only half of the gas giant's.

KELT-9b moves around the KELT-9 star, which is the brightest, hottest, and most massive star found to be a host of a huge planet. The exoplanet orbits once in every 36 hours.

This exoplanet is also "tidally locked to the star," as reported by Sci.News. KELT-9b's dayside is also endlessly bombarded by radiation from its host star, with day-side temperature levels going as high as 4,327 degrees Celsius. Because of this, the planet is hotter than around 80% of every known star.

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