Portuguese discover a rainbow-like phenomenon outside the solar system
The appearance occurs on an exoplanet so hot that it rains iron. It's called Glory and it creates different ring patterns.
It's extremely hot, it rains molten iron, and we now know it has its own rainbow. On this planet, outside our solar system, a team led by a researcher from the Portuguese Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) discovered a phenomenon similar to the rainbow phenomenon. Until then, it was only seen on Earth and Venus.
This appearance is called Gloria and occurs on WASP-76b, an exoplanet about 637 light-years from our planet. It is characterized by being a very hot star, with temperatures similar to those of Jupiter.
This effect only occurs when sunlight passes through a very narrow aperture and is scattered by water droplets or air molecules in the atmosphere. Unlike what happens in a rainbow, this phenomenon is formed as a result of the diffraction of light around these small particles and its reflection in clouds made of uniform matter.
“There is a reason why Gloria has not been seen before outside our solar system, and that is that it requires very strange conditions,” said the study's lead author and IA member Olivier Demangeon, quoted by SIC.
This discovery would not have been possible without “highly accurate data from the Cheops Space Telescope” and “from the European Space Agency (ESA),” along with data from other special missions, according to the International Space Agency.
“A star, so close to the planet, should shine directly on the atmosphere and the observer – in this case, [telescópio espacial] “Khufu – it had to be perfectly oriented,” adds Demangione.
An unusual planet
WASP-76b was discovered and has caught the attention of many astronomers ever since. An international team did not characterize the atmosphere of this giant gas planet until 2020, when rains of molten iron fall due to excessive temperatures reaching 2,400 degrees.
This appearance is possible because of the exoplanet's synchronous rotation, which “takes as much time to complete a rotation as it does to orbit its star,” as explained in a Nature publication.
During the day, thermometers are so high that they can vaporize metals such as iron. Then, strong winds just move this vapor to the night side, which may or may not condense into iron droplets due to lower temperatures (about 1,500 degrees).
In addition to WASP-76b, IA scientists are dedicated to characterizing other exoplanets, using data transmitted by the Cheops satellite. The machine is decorated with charts including drawings of different children, including 88 Portuguese.
Artistic image of iron rain.
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