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No one wants to go to hell – neither the place of eternal damnation, nor a new planet that scientists have recently discovered.
The Royal Astronomical Society’s Monthly Notices recently published discoveries by astronomers who found Earth-like planets spinning so close to their host star that their surfaces were molten, making them “lava planets.” One of the planets is called “K2-141b”.
K2-141b lies at the edge of our solar system. Scientists used computer models to predict conditions on the planet.
An artistic interpretation of a K2-141b (Image by Julie Roussy, McGill Graphic Design and Getty Images.)
On one side of the planet, on the night side, temperatures drop to -200 degrees Celsius. On the day side, which undergoes “perpetual sunlight”, temperatures reach up to 3000 degrees Celsius. Scientists said it was hot enough to melt and vaporize the rocks, creating an “atmosphere”.
“Our discovery probably means that the atmosphere extends a little beyond the shore of the magma ocean, which facilitates spotting with space telescopes”, explains Nicolas Cowan, professor in the Department of Earth and Earth Sciences. planets at McGill University.
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But in some ways, the hell planet mimics Earth in terms of precipitation.
Water on Earth evaporates, rises in the atmosphere, condenses and falls as rain. But on K2-141b, this “rain” contains sodium, silicon monoxide, and silicon dioxide. On Earth, rain falls back into the ocean and the water cycle repeats. On K2-141b, supersonic winds carry the “rain” to fall in the magmatic oceans, before evaporating and reverting to rock rain.
Scientists intend to study the planet further and confirm their hypothesis, in the meantime hoping that the planet of hell does not freeze over.
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