A planet close to us with a day that lasts forever and an eternal night lit by the explosion of volcanoes

We know very little about exoplanets. Despite thousands of people confirmed by astronomers, little is known about their atmosphere, water, or anything else that could make them habitable.

We only sometimes know how big they are and even how far they orbit from their host star.

So the claim that a planet has been found around a star that has volcanoes that light up its night sky is huge. So far, researchers have found no evidence of global tectonic activity on planets outside of our solar system.

The revolutionary work, published this week in Letters from the astrophysical journal, concerns an exoplanet called LHS 3844b, which revolves around a red dwarf star – the most common type of star in the Milky Way – about 49 light years away in the constellation Indus.

What we know about this volcanic planet

Here’s everything you need to know about LHS 3844b:

• It is a “super-Earth”, but only – its radius is 1.3 times greater than our planet and its mass is 2.25 times greater.
• A year on the LHS 3844b lasts only 11 hours – that’s the speed at which it orbits its star.
• Day and night on LHS 3844b last forever. This is because LHS 3844b is tidal locked on its star, showing it one side – just like the Moon does on Earth.
• It’s a bare, rocky basalt planet that makes it dark – pretty much the same as Mercury and darkness. mares on the moon.
• It probably has no atmosphere and therefore is not habitable – and in any case it is 1410 ° F / 770 ° C on the day side and -418 ° F / -250 ° C on the night side.
• Its host star is a red dwarf-type star about one-fifth the size of our Sun.
• Its discovery was announced in September 2018 using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

What’s so weird about LHS 3844b?

Its surface may be covered mostly with dark lava rock, according to 2019 observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. He also discovered that very little heat travels from the day side of the planet facing the stars to its night side facing space. This indicates a lack of wind and weather – and therefore no atmosphere.

Today, scientists at the University of Bern and the NCCR PlanetS National Research Competence Center in Switzerland have discovered that the material inside LHS 3844b flows from hemisphere to hemisphere. It could be responsible for numerous volcanic eruptions on one side of the planet.

How does tectonic activity work on LHS 3844b

“Observing signs of tectonic activity is very difficult, as they are usually hidden under an atmosphere,” said Tobias Meier of the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern. “We thought its harsh temperature contrast could affect the flow of matter inside the planet.”

To test this theory, the team performed computer simulations with different forces of materials and internal heat sources, such as the heat of the planet’s core and the decay of radioactive elements.

“Based on what we’re used to from Earth, you would expect the material on the warm side to be lighter and therefore flow upward, and vice versa,” the co-author said. Dan Bower from the University of Bern and NCCR PlanetS. However, some simulations have shown the opposite direction of flow. “This initially counterintuitive result is due to the change in viscosity with temperature – the cold material is more rigid and therefore doesn’t want to bend, break or subduct inside,” Bower said. “Hot material is less viscous – so even solid rock becomes more mobile when heated – and can easily flow into the interior of the planet.”

It seems clear that LHS 3844b works in a very different way to Earth, where plate tectonics brings material from the inside of the planet to the surface and atmosphere, and then backs it back below the earth’s crust – and in doing so, helps make the Earth habitable.

Volcanoes light up the night on LHS 3844b

The strange flow of material inside LHS 3844b has bizarre consequences. “Regardless of which side of the planet the material is flowing upwards, one would expect a large amount of volcanism from that particular side,” Bower said. “Similar deep upwelling on Earth stimulates volcanic activity in Hawaii and Iceland”

The conclusion is that LHS 3844b probably has one hemisphere dotted with volcanoes and one with almost none.

What comes next for LHS 3844b

These conclusions are drawn from computer simulations, so more detailed observations are needed from LHS 3844b – such as a higher resolution map of surface temperature that could reveal volcanic outgassing.

How long would it take to get to LHS 3844b

No good news here / Although 49 light years puts it firmly in our cosmic backyard, LHS 3844b is far too far to reach.

If you were traveling at the speed of light, it would take 49 years. Take humanity’s fastest space probe, New Horizons, down a notch – which travels at around 33,000 mph / 53,100 – and it would take 987,026 years to reach LHS 3844b.

I wish you clear skies and wide eyes.