From “hot jupiters” to extreme climates
almost a third of known exoplanets are gasel giants, similar to Jupiter or Saturn. However, while our solar system places these colossi away from the sun, some planetary systems host “hot jupiters”, even “ultra-chauds”, orbitant very close to their star, sometimes even closer than Mercury is not the sun . These planets, subject to extreme temperatures, are sometimes nicknamed “Roasting Marshmallows”, or “Marshmallows to be toast”, because of their fellow -shaped atmosphere.
The “Roasting Marshmallows” program, directed by Peter Smith, researcher at the Earth and Space Exploration School of the State University of Arizona, is precisely interested in these burning worlds. By analyzing the atmospheric chemistry of hot and ultra-chauds jupiters, scientists hope to better understand the protoplanetary discs from which these planets have formed.
For this mission, the team uses the infrared spectrograph immersion (igrins), installed on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. This high-precision instrument makes it possible to capture the chemical signatures in the atmosphere of exoplanets with an unprecedented resolution.
recently, the team has robbed its instruments on WASP-121B, an already well-known giant known astronomers for its extreme conditions. What they discovered calls into question decades of theories on the formation of planets.
A discovery that shakes up the theories
A planetary system is formed from a disc disc Protoplanetary, a swirling mass of rocky and frozen materials in orbit around a young star. Rocky materials, such as iron, magnesium and silicon, require very high temperatures to vaporize, while materials … Read the suite on suite Science and life
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