We tend to think that hell is beneath our feet. But what if it was much further away somewhere in space? Okay, it’s clear that hell doesn’t exist. At least not as described in the books. However, an international team of scientists has found a curious exoplanet the size of Earth, quite close to our planetary system and with conditions that may resemble hellish ones.
It attracts attention for several reasons, but the most striking is its surface temperatureso high that the metals in its composition turn into wash. No doubt that’s why it looks like hell. However, it is not the hottest exoplanet ever discovered.
Other astronomers have discovered exoplanets with even higher temperatures, although with one caveat. Its dimensions differed significantly from the dimensions of the Earth. This one has a lot common characteristics with our planetexcept that the temperature was so high that at most only the devil himself could live on its surface.
Keys to a new exoplanet
Star HD63433 It has been the focus of scientific attention for several years due to its relative proximity (73 light years) and similarity to primitive sun. Its size and mass are very similar to our star, but it is much younger, its age is only 400 million years. This may seem outrageous to us, but when we consider that the Sun is 4.5 billion years old, we realize how young this star is.
Studying it in depth can help us understand that the early years of our star and possibly planets that orbit around it. However, the exoplanets discovered so far in this system have little in common with the exoplanets of the Solar System that we currently know.
The first two were HD63433a and HD63433b. Both are similar in size to Neptune but have different orbits, so 7.1 and 20.5 days. This means that they move very quickly when compared to the Earth’s orbital period, which is 365 days. As a result, they receive much more solar radiation, so their temperatures are enormous even compared to Mercury, our warmest neighbor.
Now another exoplanet has been found in this system. It was named as HD63433d and attracts attention because it has a size similar to the size of the Earth. We might also expect a similar orbital period, but this is not the case. yours from 4.2 days so it’s even faster than its neighbors. And much warmer too.
Metals turned to lava
On this exoplanet the temperature 1257°C. It is so intensely hot that the metals on its surface melt into lava. All this, at first glance, may seem uninteresting to study, since it is also impossible for life to exist on it.
However, there is something very interesting about this discovery. And although more than 5,000 have already been discovered since the discovery of the first exoplanet in 1992, only 50 of them are smaller 500 million years.
This is a great opportunity to understand the functioning of a planetary system that is still in its infancy.
Source: Hiper Textual
