Weird Exoplanets
This is the text version of the interactive 3D documentary. 한국어
All exoplanets › Part 2: Inferno worlds
WASP-76b
Molten iron rains down every night
View in 3D · narrated- Distance
- about 630 light-years (about 6,000 trillion km, 630 years at light speed)
- Type
- Ultra-hot Jupiter (gas planet)
- Size
- About 1.8 times Jupiter’s width
- Star
- WASP-76 (bigger and hotter than the Sun)
- Year (orbit)
- About 1.8 days
- Temperature
- Day side about 2,400 °C
- Found
- 2013
About 630 light-years, toward Pisces
WASP-76b is about 630 light-years away, toward the constellation Pisces. The starlight we see from it tonight set out more than 600 years ago, in the late 1300s. The planet hugs its star and goes around it every 1.8 days.
View this scene in 3D →Molten iron falls as rain
This planet always shows the same face to its star. So one side has endless day, and the other side has endless night. The day side is about 2,400 °C, hot enough to turn even iron into gas. Winds carry the iron gas to the night side, where it cools into iron drops that pour down like rain.
Why?It’s the same reason the Moon always shows us the same face. The planet is so close that the star’s pull has locked its spin.
Learn moreIn 2020, astronomers studied this planet with the ESPRESSO instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. They saw iron gas at the evening edge, but not at the morning edge. That means the iron fell out as rain during the night.
View this scene in 3D →Sources: Wikipedia: WASP-76b
Distances and facts come from published research and NASA, as noted under each planet. The 3D close-ups are artist’s views based on that research, not photographs. Distances to faraway stars can carry some uncertainty.