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One recently investigated exoplanet appears to be the epitome of “hell on earth.”
NASA announced plans on Thursday to study two exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope after it finalizes its setup in the next few weeks. One of these planets, known as “55 Cancri e,” is considered a “super-Earth” and appears to be a red-hot ball of lava and fire.
“Imagine if Earth were much, much closer to the Sun,” NASA said in a press statement. “So close that an entire year lasts only a few hours. So close that gravity has locked one hemisphere in permanent searing daylight and the other in endless darkness. So close that the oceans boil away, rocks begin to melt, and the clouds rain lava.”
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55 Cancri e orbits fewer than 1.5 million miles from its home star, or 1/25 the distance between Mercury and the sun in our solar system.
One of the many questions that NASA researchers wish to answer includes whether it is “tidally locked.” While most planets like 55 Cancri e do not typically rotate, the heat signature of the exoplanet, or super-Earth, appears to imply otherwise due to its shifting heat state.
“Observations of 55 Cancri e from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that the hottest region is offset from the part that faces the star most directly,” NASA said. “While the total amount of heat detected from the day side does vary.”
A few theoretical explanations may offer insight, such as the existence of a dynamic atmosphere that forces the heat to shift around.
“55 Cancri e could have a thick atmosphere dominated by oxygen or nitrogen,” said Renyu Hu of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. This would contain the heat inside the planet’s atmosphere and cause it to shift around depending on various planetary variables.
It is also possible that the planet is slowly rotating and thus has a day-night cycle.
“That could explain why the hottest part of the planet is shifted,” explained Alexis Brandeker, a researcher from Stockholm University whose team typically focuses on 55 Cancri e. “Just like on Earth, it would take time for the surface to heat up. The hottest time of the day would be in the afternoon, not right at noon.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The James Webb Space Telescope could help researchers understand this highly heated planet. 55 Cancri e will be one of two planets to serve as the focus for the first year of James Webb Space Telescope’s use. The other planet, known as “LHS 3844 b,” is significantly cooler than 55 Cancri e and would offer researchers an opportunity to study “solid rock on an exoplanet surface.” The telescope is being run through several tests to confirm the instrument’s viability.
55 Cancri e was discovered in 2004 by researchers looking for variations in a star’s radial velocity. The planet is estimated to be 7.99 times as big as Earth and contains notably high amounts of volcanic activity.
