Scientists have found the strongest evidence yet for a rocky planet outside the solar system, challenging previous theories that small planets orbit in their mantle.
TOI-561 B is a 10-year-old star located about 280 light-years from Earth and has a large magma ocean. Using NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, a team of researchers is examining the ultra-hot super-epic planet Exeplanet and finding evidence that it is surrounded by a giant atmosphere. The new findings explain the planet’s subhuman nature and help scientists better understand rocky worlds beyond the reach of our Solar System.
Super-Earth
The key world was first discovered in 2020 and is within the three planets that started the ancient G-Type star. Although its star is smaller and slightly cooler than our sun, toi-561 B orbits close to its host star (less than a million miles) and may be well locked. As it completes an orbit in 11 hours, one side of the planet faces its star forever.
“What really sets this planet apart is its low density,” Johanna Teske, a staff scientist at the Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory and the first author of a paper published in the journal Astrophysical Astrays, said in a statement. “It’s not super-puff, but it’s a lot gentler than you’d expect if it was earthy.”
Its proximity to its host star would result in a superheat, too hot to support the atmosphere. The radiation from the Star Star will cause atmospheric gases to escape into space. The lower mass of the planet, however, is not a rocky land.
A group of scientists behind a new study set out to understand whether Thi-561 B just came out of rock or lava, or if there is something else to play. Scientists used Webb’s NIRSPEC (near-inflated) to measure the planet’s solar temperature (the side of the planet facing its star) based on its relative brightness.
If toi-561 B has no atmosphere to transport its heat from its days at night, then interstellar temperatures should be close to 4,900 degrees Celsius). Webb’s observations told a different story, however, revealing that the planet’s core appears to be close to 3,200 degrees Celsius). That’s still pretty hot, but not nearly enough to account for the lack of air.
The group tested other explanations, but none of them worked well. Without an atmosphere, the planet’s night would have been stronger, preventing the transfer of heat from the day. The Planet’s Magma Ocean would play a role if it had a small layer of rock vapor on its surface, but its cooling effect would be minimal. “We really need a deep deep state to explain everything that has been observed,” a researcher at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, and a writer on the Law of Application.
Although the presence of an atmosphere in toi-561 b could be the only viable explanation, it remains a mystery how the small planet is exposed to the high amounts of radiation from its large mantle. Researchers believe the answer may lie within the planet’s Magma Ocean.
“We think that there is a balance between the magma ocean and the atmosphere, a researcher at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the author of the study, said in a statement. “At the same time that gases come out of the ground to feed the atmosphere, the magma ocean absorbs them back inside.”
“This world must be so, so soft – richer than the world to describe what you saw. “It’s like a wet ball of lava.”
