"These elements that appear to be missing in WASP-76 b's atmosphere are precisely those that require higher temperatures to vaporize, like titanium and aluminum, " Pelletier said. The team discovered that certain elements in the atmosphere of Wasp-76 b appeared to be "depleted." Not everything discovered about the composition of WASP-76 b was so expected, however. And this could be true of all giant planets.Īn artist's impression of WASP-76. The fact that this new study shows WASP-76 b has a similar composition to its star means its composition is also similar to the protoplanetary disk of material that collapsed to birth it. This means stars of similar ages have similar compositions with the same abundances of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which astronomers call "metals."īecause terrestrial planets such as ours form by more complex processes, however, they have different abundances of heavy elements than their stars. This blast releases those elements into the cosmos, and they become the building blocks of the next stars, with the remaining material surrounding these infant stars as proto-planetary disks, which, as the name suggests, can spawn planets. A star creates heavier elements until it exhausts its fuel for nuclear fusion, dying in a supernova explosion. The elementary abundances seen aren't arbitrary they are the result of the processing of hydrogen and helium by successive generations of stars over billions of years. What Pelletier and colleagues discovered during their investigation of WASP-76 b was that the abundance of elements like manganese, chromium, magnesium, vanadium, barium, and calcium match closely, not only the abundances of these elements in its own star but also the quantities found in the sun. This isn't possible for colder giant planets like Jupiter as these elements dwell lower in the atmosphere, making them impossible to detect. That means studying this world can give astronomers an unparalleled insight into the presence and abundance of rock-forming elements in the atmosphere of giant planets. To the left of the image, we see the evening border of the exoplanet, where it transitions from day to night. Strong winds carry iron vapor to the cooler night side where it condenses into iron droplets. The ultra-hot giant exoplanet has a day side where temperatures climb above 4,350 degrees Fahrenheit (2,400 degrees Celsius), high enough to vaporise metals. This illustration shows a night-side view of the exoplanet WASP-76 b. This allowed the team to study the composition of the ultra hot Jupiter in unprecedented detail.īecause of the incredible temperatures of WASP-76 b, elements that would usually form rocks on terrestrial planets like Earth, such as magnesium and iron, are instead vaporized and lurk as gasses in the planet's upper atmosphere. Spurred on by these previous investigations of WASP-76 b, Pelletier was inspired to obtain new observations of WASP-76 b with the MAROON-X high-resolution optical spectrograph on the Gemini North 8-meter Telescope in Hawaii, part of the International Gemini Observatory. Most strikingly was the discovery in 2020 that iron vaporized on the side of the tidal-locked planet that permanently faces its star blows to the relatively cooler "night side" that perpetually faces space and condenses, falling as iron rain. This has led to the classification of several elements in its atmosphere. WASP-76 b has been the subject of intense study since it was found as part of the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) program in 2013. ![]() That is the result of intense radiation from its star "puffing out" the planet. Though the planet has just around 85% of the mass of Jupiter, it is almost twice the width of the solar system gas giant and is around six times its volume. This gives WASP-76 b, which takes 1.8 Earth days to orbit its star, some other extraordinary properties. Classified as an "ultra-hot Jupiter," which is a massive planet that exists incredibly close to its star, the exoplanet is a twelfth of the distance from its star, WASP-76, than Mercury is to the sun. Located around 634 light-years away in the Pisces constellation, the strange planet of WASP-76 b gets its incredible temperatures from its proximity to its parent star.
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