Thread by @weatherindia

#PlanetInferno: Scientists Predict Supersonic Winds, Raining #Rocks in This Exoplanet Full of Lava Oceans - by @MrigDixit

weather.com/en-IN/india/sp…

(📸: Julie Roussy, McGill Graphic Design and Getty Images)

The cosmic universe hosts millions of inhabitable celestial bodies, but some among them are so extreme that their characteristics would scare even Lucifer himself.

Among these are the planets that revolve too close to their host star. Most such planets are fiery hot worlds made up of oceans of hot molten lava.

Recently a team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata, in collaboration with McGill University, York University, pointed at one such rather scary world named K2-141b.

This ‘hellish’ planet is located about 210 light-years from our habitable #Earth and its host star—around which it orbits—is regarded to be slightly smaller than our Sun.

As the #exoplanet is very close to its host star, it takes only six or seven hours to complete one revolution—much faster compared than the closest planet to our Sun i.e., mercury, which takes nearly 87 days to finish one orbit.

Predicting the weather conditions K2-141b

Imagine the weather conditions on the planet full of oceans of lava! In this new study, scientists predict the weather conditions on this ‘lava’ planet. And the results show that it’s nothing less than a ‘hell.’

As the planet is situated very close to its scorching star, one hemisphere faces heat throughout the orbit, making a total of two-third area of K2-141b sun-lit all the time. This happens because the exoplanet is gravitationally locked, making one side always face the star.

The sunlit side of the planet witnessed extreme temperatures of whopping 3000°C—hot enough to melt and vaporize rocks.

This #exoplanet is nearly the size of our Earth and everything is composed mainly of rocky elements like sodium, silicon monoxide, and silicon dioxide. Interestingly, the darker side of the planet experiences frigid temperatures dropping below -200°C with never-ending darkness.

Moreover, the predictions state that one side experiences windy weather, whereas, the other is totally devoid of it.

For these predictions of K2-141b, scientists used computer simulation techniques. Through this, they were able to paint the picture of a lava planet like never before.

Planet where rock ‘rains’

The simulation threw up projections of a scarier world as it revealed that the planet’s magma ocean is about 100 km deep. Similar to how the Earth witnessed the water cycle, this exoplanet has its own rock cycle.

Due to the extreme temperatures, rocks on the surface of this planet evaporate and are moved to the dark side of the planet by the supersonic winds that rage over 5,000 km/hr.

The mineral vapour precipitates in the frigid atmosphere on the night side of the planet and ‘rains’ back.

The teams are further working to test if these extreme weather predictions are correct, and the #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope scheduled to launch in 2021 is likely to help them do that.

Researchers now have acquired data from the #SpitzerSpaceTelescope and are hopeful that it may help them with confirmation of the day-side and night-side temperatures of the exoplanet.