According to models by scientists from Washington University in St. Louis, the atmosphere on the planet COROT-7b, which was first discovered in February this year, has rocky components.
According to models by scientists from Washington University in St. Louis, the atmosphere on the planet COROT-7b, which was first discovered in February this year, has rocky components.
The research was carried out by Laura Schiffer, a research assistant in the Planetary Chemistry Laboratories, under the direction of Professor Bruce Pagli Jr. and was published in the Astrophysical Journal in the October 1 edition.
Astronomers have found nearly 400 exoplanets in the last 20 years. But because of the limitations of the indirect means by which these planets are discovered, most planets are of the warm Jupiter type. Gas giants that are close to their parent star (the size of Jupiter is about 1300 Earth-masses, and the mass of Jupiter is 300 Earth-masses).
The size of COROT-7b is less than twice the size of KDA, and its mass is five Earths.
In August 2009, European astronomers reported the discovery of COROT-7c – another planet around COROT-7.
Using this information about the two planets, they were able to calculate that the average density of COROT-7b is about that of Earth. "We discovered with almost certainty that the planet is rocky, and composed of silicate rocks, like those found in the mantle of the Earth," says Pagli.
But the planet itself is far from being similar to Earth, and is not hospitable to the formation of life. The planet and its parent star are only about 2.6 million km apart - 23 times shorter than the distance between Mercury and the Sun.
Since the planet is so close to the parent star, it is gravitationally "locked" in the same way as our moon is to Earth, so one side is always facing the star.
The side facing the star has a temperature of 2300 degrees Celsius - a temperature hot enough to vaporize rocks. The average temperature of the Earth's mantle for comparison is only 15 degrees Celsius.
The other side of the planet is at a temperature of minus 223 degrees Celsius.
Probably because of the harsh weather conditions, COROT-7b's atmosphere lacks Earth-compatible components such as water, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide.
"The only atmosphere in the object is produced by vapors rising from molten silicate in lava lakes or lava oceans," says Pagli.
To understand the characteristics of the atmosphere, Schiffer and Pegli performed calculations of the thermodynamic scales on the planet and built a model of the COROT-7b atmosphere.
Because the scientists did not know the exact composition of the planet, they created four models with different starting data for the components. "In the end, we got the same results in all four situations," says Pagli.
"Sodium, potassium, silicon monoxide and oxygen... make up most of the atmosphere." But there are also small amounts of elements found in silicate rocks, such as magnesium, aluminum, calcium and iron.
On this strange planet, there is also strange weather. "The higher you go in the atmosphere, it gets cooler and eventually the air is saturated with different types of stones, just like the upper part of the KDA atmosphere is saturated with water," Pagli explains. "But instead of water clouds that create and drop water drops, you get rock clouds that drop rain of small pebbles of different rock types."
Potassium and sodium have very low boiling points compared to stones. These materials will not fall in the rain of stones but will remain high in the atmosphere where they will form large gas clouds that will be blown by the wind on the planet.
These giant clouds may be detected from ground telescopes on the surface of the Earth - the sodium in the clouds will shine in the orange part of the radiation spectrum.
Scientists have also recently detected sodium in the atmospheres of two other planets outside the solar system.
For a message on the Washington University in St. Louis website
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There is so much matter in the universe "for everyone" and on our tiny planet people are dying of hunger from disease and pollution.
Is this a distribution of resources?
And of course 🙂
Yael, an interesting and ignorant article for a layman like me,
And later as a description.. Does a star whose mass is five times greater than the Earth's have a gravitational force five times greater than that of the Earth? I mean 5 G? And is the force of gravity greater, how are there clouds of rocks?
Thank you Yael for the article,
Due to the precise descriptions and findings obtained by theoretical modeling,
At least as the final stage of the research, it was very interesting to understand what observations were made and of course
interim conclusions. It's more or less like hearing the happy ending of the story without
know its beginning. It is also interesting to see a real picture and to understand the way they interpreted it and built it
the models.
I also predict that as astronomical observations become more distant, so will the demand
For concept artists to explain what they see.
Definitely a link to a real picture, it would help here.
Thanks
The idea can be expanded to: the Yoav effect
If the planet is locked to a star and its surface is not molten then near the fixed sunset horizon in the dark part the stones will accumulate in the form of a huge circle the diameter of the planet inside this circle and towards the darker area sediments will form according to their solidification temperature in circles one inside the other.
The effect is dependent on the weight of the planet star in the presence of an atmosphere and if the planet is indeed locked
An interesting article on the psychological level of how people can deal with something that is so far away, so invisible and inaccessible and at the same time build such specific descriptions of what is there. It's fascinating. As a microbiologist of a complex environment I can understand a little of this thing of working with something you don't have in hand and probably never will. The difference is that in their case there is also no hope of verifying anything from the findings. With us, how can we live in a fantasy that one day all the animals will be isolated and we will know everything about them (and no one will be confused - this is completely absurd).
If there is a locked side and a dark side and there are such extreme temperature differences, this means that there is a temperature gradient in between on the borders and around them. There will be places where there are conditions similar to the conditions of the earth (light + background temp of plus or minus one hundred degrees) and in such places an extraterrestrial soul can develop.
Greetings friends,
Ami Bachar