Scientists
have discovered the strongest evidence so far of a stratosphere on a
planet outside our solar system. The stratosphere is a layer of the
atmosphere where the temperature rises as the planet rises. "This
is an exciting result because it shows that there is a common feature
of most of the atmosphere," said Mark Marley, assistant scientist in
charge of the study team at NASA's Ames Research Center.
In our solar system - a warm stratosphere that can also be found in
the atmosphere of extrasolar planets - we can now compare processes in
the atmosphere outside the Earth with the same processes that occur
under different sets of conditions in our own solar system.According
to the scientific report published in the latest issue of Nature,
scientists used data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study the
non-solar planet WASP-121b, a type of planet outside the solar system
that belongs to the family of "hot Jupiter" 1,2 times from Jupiter, and about 1.9 times the radius of Jupiter - which makes it more bulge than the buyer himself. But
while Jupiter rotates around our sun once every 12 years, WASP-121b
orbits its star in only 1.3 days, meaning that the planet is so close to
its star that the star's gravity is working to tear it apart. This
also means that the upper part of the atmosphere of the planet is
heated to a frightening degree of about 2500 Celsius, a temperature too
high enough to boil some minerals. The WASP-121b system is about 900 light-years away from Earth, which
is a very long distance but a short distance according to Hungarian
standards.Indeed,
past research has found possible signs of a stratosphere on a non-solar
planet called WASP-33b as well as some other hot Jupiter planets, so
the new study offers the best evidence of the health of hot water
molecules
Which the researchers observed for the first time. Tom
Evans, lead author of the paper and research fellow at the University
of Exeter, UK, said: "The theoretical models have suggested that
stratospheric strata may identify a distinct class of superhero planets
with significant implications for atmospheric physics and chemistry, and
our observations in this study support this picture. To
study the stratosphere of the non-solar planet WASP-121b scientists
analyzed how different molecules in the atmosphere interacted with
certain wavelengths of light using Hubble's spectral analysis
capabilities. Water vapor in the atmosphere of the planet, for example, behaves in
predictable ways depending on certain wavelengths of light and water
temperature.That
the light of the star is able to penetrate the depth of the atmosphere
of the planet, where it raises the temperature of gas there, and this
gas to release heat in space on the image of infrared radiation. However,
if water vapor is cooler at the top of the atmosphere, water molecules
prevent some wavelengths from this light from escaping into space, but
if water molecules in the upper part of the atmosphere have a higher
temperature, they will glow At the same wavelengths. "The
emission of light from water means high temperature with altitude,"
said study co-author Tiffany Kataria of the NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. "We are excited to explore the time span of this continuous
behavior through Hubble's observations in the future. This
phenomenon is similar to what happens with fireworks, which get their
colors from the nature of chemicals emitted by light. When the metal
materials are heated and vaporized, electrons move to higher energy
states depending on these materials. These electrons emit light at
specific wavelengths Because
it loses energy, where Sodium produces orange and yellow, Strontium
produces red in this process. For example, the water molecules in the
atmosphere of WASP-121b are similarly given to the beam because they
lose energy, but in the form of infrared light , And Which the human eye can not see and reveal. In
the Earth's atmosphere, ozone gas traps ultraviolet radiation from the
sun, raising the temperature of this layer of the atmosphere. There
are other forms in the solar system that have a stratosphere layer, as
methane is responsible for heating the stratosphere in both Jupiter,
Saturn and the Titan moon, for example. In
the planets of the solar system, the temperature change within the
stratosphere is usually about 56 ° C, while on WASP-121b, the
temperature in the stratosphere rises by 560 ° C. Scientists do not yet
know which chemicals are causing the increase in temperature In the atmosphere of the non-solar planet.Scientists
report that the chemicals that cause this massive rise in the planet
are vanadium oxide and titanium oxide. They are thought to resemble
brown dwarfs, also called "failed stars," which have some commonalities
with outer planets. These
compounds are expected to be present only at the hot Jupiter's
temperature, and high temperatures are needed to maintain them in the
gaseous state.
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