Exoplanet hotter than some stars
Astronomers have identified an Jupiter-sized exoplanet with a surface that is apparently hotter than the surfaces of some stars.
With a day-side temperature of 4,600 Kelvin (more than 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit), planet KELT-9b is hotter than most stars, and only 1,200 Kelvin (about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than our own sun…. For instance, it’s a gas giant 2.8 times more massive than Jupiter but only half as dense, because the extreme radiation from its host star has caused its atmosphere to puff up like a balloon. And because it is tidally locked to its star—as the Moon is to Earth—the day side of the planet is perpetually bombarded by stellar radiation, and as a result is so hot that molecules such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane can’t form there. The properties of the night side are still mysterious—molecules may be able to form there, but probably only temporarily.
The most interesting aspect of this discovery is that it was done with small, inexpensive ground-based telescopes.
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Astronomers have identified an Jupiter-sized exoplanet with a surface that is apparently hotter than the surfaces of some stars.
With a day-side temperature of 4,600 Kelvin (more than 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit), planet KELT-9b is hotter than most stars, and only 1,200 Kelvin (about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than our own sun…. For instance, it’s a gas giant 2.8 times more massive than Jupiter but only half as dense, because the extreme radiation from its host star has caused its atmosphere to puff up like a balloon. And because it is tidally locked to its star—as the Moon is to Earth—the day side of the planet is perpetually bombarded by stellar radiation, and as a result is so hot that molecules such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane can’t form there. The properties of the night side are still mysterious—molecules may be able to form there, but probably only temporarily.
The most interesting aspect of this discovery is that it was done with small, inexpensive ground-based telescopes.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Where is this KELT-9, star, located? (and how far away is it?) I didn’t catch it in the article.
Might it not be more correct to say, “it’s hotter than the surface, of our own Sun?” (I thought the interior of our Sun, was ‘like, 20 million degrees?)
(Goes without saying– this is all very cool. Worlds without end, to be sure!)
Wayne: Your point is taken. I have revised the wording of the post, as the temperatures were referring to the surfaces of stars.
Mr. Z.
Thank you.
(-Wasn’t trying to be picky, the Sun’s “temperature” has confused me to no end in the past. If I’m recalling correctly, we don’t know the complete mechanism by which heat is transferred throughout a star.)
I’d be highly interested in what this KELT-9b, is composed.
And yes– very cool they used equipment that doesn’t cost a fortune.
Wayne: You are recalling right. Solar scientists and physicists do not yet understand the process whereby the heat in a star’s interior transfers outward to the surface. They also really do not understand in detail the nuclear processes going on there.
Which, by the way, is why I remain skeptical of any predictions concerning the Sun’s solar cycle. Sunspot activity hints at the possibility of an upcoming grand minimum, but don’t bet on it. We do not understand the process yet.
Excellent segue to Sun spots!
I would tangentially shill for a Gresham College, Public Lecture.
Part of a lengthy Series the Professor did in 2014.
Good visuals & covers a wide range of Sun topics, although not deeply.
(our friend, the sun)
“The Sun, our Nearest Star”
Prof. Carolin Crawford
Gresham College Public Lecture
https://youtu.be/roADQPlPm0k
(56:34)
Our Sun ranges from a theoretical 50 million degrees in the center, to 11,000° on the surface.(photosphere) It cools off another 4000° 250 miles above the surface. The temperature goes back up to near 2 million° In the chromosphere but there is no upper limit, it’s been measured near 18,000,000°
This violates the laws of thermodynamics, and the radiation is low. There should be a factor of three more neutrons (gamma radiation) as a byproduct of a large nuclear reaction. Enough radiation to make this world lifeless
https://solarprobe.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Although this probe launches next year, it will be another six years before we receive data on how our Sun works… I don’t think they will tell us the truth because too much money is spent on hot fusion.
This Jupiter like planet must be skimming the surface of the sun that is larger than ours. 36 hours is incredibly fast. So it has 1/2 Jupiters mass. But 2.8 times larger to dim the star as much as it does…?
Many compounds form anyway in hot temperatures, chronal mass ejections from our own Sun throw methane, ammonia and other gases that burn up in our atmosphere as the Aurora Borealis. Ionizing radiation makes other compounds like Ozone, nitrous oxide in earths ozone layer but does not penetrate very far. On Venus it does not pass the upper atmosphere. None of the suns heat reaches the surface of the planet.
https://www.universetoday.com/97662/surprise-hot-venus-has-a-cold-upper-atmosphere/
Even though Venus is nearly tidel locked, it’s atmosphere is not. It moves around the planet once every two days. (48 hours). There are a lot of assumptions in this article, many of which do not occur in our own solar system. I’ll try to keep an open mind to the possibilities anyway… I do enjoy science fiction.
The Parker Probe, as we should call Solar probe Plus now in memory of a heliophysicist, for once, who predicted the Solar wind, will give good data already November 1st 2018, only 3 months after launch, when it reaches its first perihelion 36 Solar radii from the Sun. One Solar radius is roughly ½% of the distance Earth-Sun so this is less than half the distance of Mercury. 30 times more intense Solar radiation than at Earth.
Venus flyby’s means looong travel times for interplanetary probes going outwards. But this thing will fly by the Sun each time it passes by Venus. It’s a Solar clipper. It will edge closer and closer until 10 Solar radii perihelion in 2024 (400 times more intense radiation! if the corona doesn’t change this law of squares). And I guess they can extend this mission too.