WASP-76b, also known as Super Hot Jupiter, It may be weirder than it sounds. Not only does it rain there, but scientists from the USA, Canada and Northern Ireland Found Large amounts of ionized calcium in the atmosphere. These are just the first results of long-term exoplanets using the Gemini Spectroscopy (ExoGemS) research project.

Hot Jupiters are gas giants that orbit very close to their parent star, and have a temperature similar to that of a star. WASP-76b, discovered in 2016, is 640 light-years from Earth. It orbits an F-type star that is slightly hotter than the Sun. An orbit around a star takes only 43 hours. This shows how close the planet should be to the star. As iron evaporates it is not surprising that it heats up, which then condenses and falls as rain.

Researchers from Cornell University, University of Toronto and Queen’s University Belfast are conducting a project to study such foreign worlds. By studying exoplanets of different masses and temperatures, we want to create a more comprehensive picture of the diversity of these worlds. From celestial to iron-raining planets, to temperate worlds, to planets larger than Jupiter, similar in size to Earth.Says Professor Ray Jayawardena. Thanks to modern telescopes and equipment, we can already learn a lot about their atmosphere, study their structure and physical properties, detect the presence of clouds, and detect large-scale wind patterns.He adds.

During WASP-76b observation, the researchers noticed three spectral lines that were rarely observed. We noticed a lot of calcium. This is a really strong signal. The spectral lines of ionized calcium indicate that a very strong wind is blowing in the upper atmosphere of this planet or that the temperature of the planet is much higher than we thought.The main author of the study, PhD student Emily Debert, explains.

The planet rotates simultaneously with its star, so the rotation around its axis is equal to the rotation around the star. This means that half of it is constantly facing the star. At night, when the star’s light never falls, the temperature is about 1,300 degrees Celsius. On the day side it is about 1000 degrees hot. Debert and his team studied the temperate zone between day and side.

As part of the ExoGemS project led by Jake Turner of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University, scientists want to study at least 30 exoplanets in detail.

WASP-76b Iron Rain Exoplanet Star