2024-04-23 05:59:38
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – Astronomers have discovered what they believe is a rainbow-like phenomenon occurring on a planet outside our solar system for the first time, and it could reveal new insights about alien worlds.
Observations by the European Space Agency’s exoplanet satellite, Cubes, have revealed the “glory phenomenon” on WASP-76b, an extremely hot exoplanet located 637 light-years from Earth.
This effect, often seen on Earth, consists of concentric colored rings of light, and occurs when light reflects off clouds made of uniform material.
Outside Earth, the “glory phenomenon” had only been seen on Venus until Cubes and other missions picked up an incredibly faint signal that it was occurring in the atmosphere of the superheated planet WASP-76b.
Based on the signal detected by Cubes, astronomers believe that the atmospheric phenomenon is facing the Earth directly.
“There is a reason why no trace of a glory phenomenon has ever been seen outside our solar system: it requires very strange conditions,” lead study author Olivier Demanjon, an astronomer at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, said in a statement.
He continued: “First, we need atmospheric molecules that are almost perfectly spherical, completely uniform and stable enough to observe them over a long period. A star close to the planet needs to Yeshua “directly on it, with the observer in exactly the right direction.”
Planet WASP-76b has aroused the interest of astronomers since its discovery in 2013.
The exoplanet orbits closely around its host star, and the intense heat and radiation it receives from this sun-like star — more than 4,000 times the amount of radiation Earth receives from our sun — has caused WASP-76b to inflate, making it twice the size of Jupiter, the largest planet. In our solar system.
The day side, which always faces the star, of WASP-76b reaches scorching temperatures of up to 2,400 degrees Celsius.
The elements that normally make up rocks on Earth also melt and evaporate on the dayside before condensing and forming clouds that release rain of molten iron on the nightside.
Astronomers decided to focus a whole host of observatories, including Cubes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and NASA’s planet-hunting TESS mission to study what appeared to be a light imbalance that occurred as WASP-76b orbited in front of its host star.
Cubes captured data from WASP-76b as the planet passed in front of its star, and made 23 observations over three years.
When astronomers looked at the data, they noticed an unusual increase in light coming from the planet’s eastern “terminator,” or the boundary light between the day and night sides. At the same time, less light was released from the western terminator.
“This is the first time such a sharp change in the brightness of an exoplanet, or its phase curve, has been detected,” Demangione said.
He continued: “This discovery leads us to hypothesize that this unexpected glow could be caused by a strong, localized and anisotropic (direction-dependent) reflection, i.e. the glory phenomenon.”
Demangione expressed his happiness at participating in the first discovery of this type of light coming from a planet outside the solar system.
“It was a special feeling, it doesn’t happen every day,” he said.
The phenomenon of glory occurs when light moves through a narrow aperture and bends, creating patterned colored rings.
If what astronomers are really seeing is the glory phenomenon on WASP-76b, it means that the planet has persistent clouds made of perfectly spherical droplets, or clouds that are constantly being renewed. In both cases, the presence of such clouds indicates that the temperature of the planet’s atmosphere is stable.
What exactly is in the clouds on WASP-76b remains a mystery.
For his part, Matthew Standing, a research fellow at the European Space Agency who studies exoplanets, said in a statement: “What we must take into account is the astonishing scale of what we are witnessing.”
He explained, “The planet WASP-76b is several hundred light-years away, and it is a very hot gas giant planet, where molten iron is likely to rain.”
He continued: “However, it appears that (researchers) have discovered possible signs of the Majd phenomenon. It is an incredibly faint signal.”
If astronomers can observe the faint signal of a phenomenon like glory from hundreds of light-years away, detecting the presence of sunlight reflected on extraterrestrial bodies of water may also be possible in the future.
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