Rare gas detected on distant exoplanet sheds light on planet formation: study

United News of India

2 days ago

Sydney, June 2 (UNI) Astronomers have detected silicon monoxide gas in the atmosphere of a planet 850 lightyears from Earth, the first time the gas has ever been observed on any planet, including those in the solar system.
According to a press release from the University of Newcastle in Australia on Monday, the research offers unprecedented insight into the formation and atmospheric chemistry of exoplanet WASP-121b, also known as Tylos.
The planet, discovered in 2015, is an ultra-hot gas giant similar in size to Jupiter but far hotter, with temperatures exceeding 2,500 degrees Celsius, the release said.
The international team, led by Tom Evans-Soma from the University of Newcastle and involved 18 institutions across Australia, Germany, the United States, Britain and India, used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to observe Tylos continuously for 40 hours, which is the most comprehensive observation ever made of an exoplanet completing a full orbit, it said.
Over 3,500 exposures, about one every minute, were captured, allowing researchers to analyze both the dayside and nightside atmospheres, said the study published in Nature Astronomy.
While expected molecules like water vapor and carbon monoxide were found, the surprising detection of silicon monoxide and methane, rare on such hot planets, challenges existing atmospheric models, Evans-Soma said.
The study suggests Tylos formed in a cold, distant region rich in ice and rocky material before migrating closer to its star, where intense heat vaporized the rocks into silicon monoxide, a planet born in ice and forged in fire, he said.
Though Tylos is uninhabitable, the study advances the search for Earth-like planets by improving techniques to detect potential signs of life in distant atmospheres, he added. UNI XINDUA AKT SSP