This exoplanet has metal rain and 2,400C temperatures

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Exoplanets are the term used to describe planets that orbit bodies other than our own sun. These celestial entities have temperatures that range to such phenomenal heights that the intense heat quite literally rips apart some of the molecules in their atmospheres. These uber-hot exoplanets are also sometimes called ultra-hot Jupiters, because they resemble the big planet.

Besides their characteristic heat levels, these exoplanets also have typically super-short orbits, lasting only a few days. One of these Jupiteresque bodies was discovered in 2016. Named WASP-76b, the exoplanet is at least twice the size of our own Earth. The giant astral body with the file-like name sprints around its parent star in less than two days.

Moreover, the heat generated by this celestial presence is much more than most of us could even begin to comprehend, reaching 2,400C {4352F.} If all that isn’t enough, a 2020 study would seem to suggest that the surface of this massive exoplanet gets pelted with a rain of liquid iron.

Because WASP-76b and other exoplanets are so incredibly far from us. it becomes a matter more of inferring there presence, which we can from chemical signatures and other atmospheric signals in space. In the case of WASP76b a number of actual telescopic sightings have been catalogued.

Key Takeaways:

Ultra-hot Jupiters are exoplanets with physical similarities to Jupiter and extremely hot temperatures.
Transit spectroscopy studies the “fingerprints” left when an exoplanet crosses in front of its parent star.
Exoplanet WASP-76b’s complex atmosphere will be further studied after the James Webb Space Telescope launches.

“They also whip around their parent stars in orbits that only last a few days, and astronomers still aren’t sure how it’s possible for them to form.”

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