Exoplanet hunter snares 'extreme' superhot world
Last updated on: 29 September,2020 07:14 pm
Exoplanet hunter snares 'extreme' superhot world
PARIS (AFP) - A European Space Agency satellite tasked with tracking down exoplanets has made its first big catch, a world so hot that its atmosphere could melt iron, astrophysicists have reported.
Launched into Earth orbit in December, the CHEOPS space-based telescope spotted the gas giant circling close to one of the hottest known stars with a planetary system, according to a study published last week.
"We estimate the temperature of WASP-189b to be 3,200 degrees Celsius (5,800 degrees Fahrenheit)," said lead author Monika Lendl, a scientist at the University of Geneva.
"This object is one of the most extreme planets we know so far," she added, describing it as "very exotic".
Some 322 light years away in the constellation Libra, WASP-189b is so close to its host star that it orbits in less than three days.
It is too far away from Earth to see directly, but can be detected in other ways.
When a planet passes between its star and an observer -- whether an astronomer on land or a telescope in space -- it dims the star’s light by a tiny but measurable amount.
This "transit" method has detected the vast majority of exoplanets discovered so far. NASA’s Kepler spacecraft used it to find thousands of candidates from 2009 to 2013.