The top of the planet’s atmosphere is heated to a blazing 2,500 degrees Celsius, hot enough to boil some metals.
The top of the planet's atmosphere is heated to a blazing 2,500 degrees Celsius, hot enough to boil some metals. NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STSci) - An international team of researchers led by the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS of the University of Bern and the University of Geneva studied the atmosphere of the ultra-hot exoplanet WASP-121b. In it, they found a number of gaseous metals. The results are a next step in the search for potentially habitable worlds. WASP-121b is an exoplanet located 850 light years from Earth, orbiting its star in less than two days - a process that takes Earth a year to complete. WASP-121b is very close to its star - about 40 times closer than Earth to the Sun. This close proximity is also the main reason for its immensely high temperature of around 2,500 to 3,000 degrees Celsius.
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