Hottest Alien Planet Ever Discovered Is a Real Scorcher

[Judi Lynn]

By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | June 5, 2017 03:23pm ET

- click for photo -


https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA2Ni82NTQvb3JpZ2luYWwvaG90dGVzdC1leG9wbGFuZXQta2VsdC05Yi5qcGc=


Artist’s illustration showing the bright star KELT-9 and its ultrahot planet, KELT-9b.
Credit: Robert Hurt/NASA/JPL-Caltech


Astronomers have found the hottest known exoplanet, a world where temperatures exceed those on the surface of most stars.

The Jupiter-like planet, known as KELT-9b, zips around its hot host star once every 1.5 Earth days. Its orbit is so tight that the gas giant is tidally locked, always showing the same face to the star, just as the moon shows only one face to Earth.

Temperatures on KELT-9b's "day side" reach a blazing 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit (4,300 Celsius), the planet's discoverers said. That's hotter than the surface of the dwarf stars that dominate the Milky Way galaxy, and just 2,200 degrees F (1,200 degrees C) cooler than the surface of the sun. (However, temperatures in the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, can reach about 3 million degrees F, or 1.67 million degrees C.) [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

Such extreme temperatures make KELT-9b a truly otherworldly place. For example, molecules such as water and carbon dioxide likely cannot exist in the planet's atmosphere, the researchers said.

More:
http://www.space.com/37092-hottest-alien-planet-found-kelt-9b.html?utm_source=notification

[Warren DeMontague]

1. ...

[eppur_se_muova]

2. " ... just 2,200 degrees ... cooler ... " -- Um, OK. nt