Detecting strange alien planets: Snow has just fallen, and the sun is burning

Astronomers have discovered a strange and extremely alien planet. If you have the opportunity to travel space, then skip this planet.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has just observed the Kepler-13Ab exoplanet with harsh conditions. The planet is too close to the host star - star Kepler-13A - causing its daytime temperature to reach 2,760 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, snow falls at night.

From left: Kepler-13Ab alien with very close orbit of its star Kepler-13A, besides the binary star system: Kepler-13C orange dwarf and Kepler-13B star.(Graphics: NASA, ESA, G. Bacon (STScI)).

Alien Kepler-13Ab is a tide-locked planet with the host star , meaning that half of it will always be directed towards the star Kepler-13, while the other half will be immersed in the eternal night.

The night part of the hemisphere has a temperature not as high as the rest, not only that, but the rain falls continuously and a lot. Rain at the hemisphere at night is not the same as the rain on Earth, but they are the same liquid mixture as the sunscreen we use.

The sunscreen rain (titanium oxide) always falls as thick as snow storms. Astronomers cannot directly observe these rains, they use Hubble glasses to determine, atmospheric temperatures are getting lower in areas with higher latitudes, as opposed to normal.

This is one of the hottest planets ever discovered, the extrasolar planets of this type are called 'Hot Jupiter'. The planets of this type must have a layer of titanium oxide similar to absorb light and heat, especially Kepler-13Ab is not available.

If titanium oxide is present in the hemisphere during the day, it will absorb light and cause the atmosphere here to heat up. Titanium oxide is only present at night hemisphere, cold winds cause them to condense to form clouds, and precipitate creates something like snow, pouring down continuously.

Gravity on this planet is six times higher than Jupiter, pulling all the titanium oxide into the atmospheric infrastructure, preventing them from evaporating high and thus they have no chance of escaping from the other side of the planet. planet.

This is the first time scientists have discovered a strange planet with this precipitation process, they call it a "cold trap" on extrasolar planets. This observation gives scientists a clearer view of the complexity of the weather on distant planets.

Comparison of the size of the outer planet Kepler-13Ab with five planets in the Solar System.Graphics: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI).

'In various ways, studies of the atmosphere of Jupiter-like planets will be used in the future to study the atmosphere of Earth-like planets , ' said Thomas Beatty of the University. Pennsylvania said.

'Jupiter-like planets clearly show their weather characteristics and can be easily observed, while Earth-like planets are not. Therefore, understanding the weather on the big planets, we will learn more about the weather in small planets. "

Beatty's team chose Kepler-13Ab to observe because this is a very hot planet. The past observations of the "Hot Jupiter" also show their extremely terrible temperature rise. The planets in our Solar System also have the same phenomenon.

Through this observation, the researchers claim that such rains may have also occurred in other giant gas exits.'But on this planet, because the gravity is so big, the "snow" is trapped. In other planets, rain clouds easily fly to the hemisphere during the day and dissolve into gaseous bodies , "he added.

This study was observed through Hubble's Wide Field Vision 3 Camera with near infrared light. Observations were made when distant extraterrestrial planets moved behind the host star, known as secondary eclipse . This method gives scientists information about the temperature and atmospheric composition of the day's outer hemisphere.

'The observations of Kepler-13Ab help us understand more about "hot Jupiter" and how clouds are formed in their atmosphere, as well as the influence of gravity on the composition of the atmosphere. Looking at these planets, you will be amazed by its heat, and moreover their gravity , " Beatty explained.

The study was published in The Astronomical Journal.