WASP-127b is a peculiar satellite for a lot of ground . It is a puffy hot super - Neptune that revolve its star in about four daytime . It has 1.4 times the radius of Jupiter but only one - one-fifth of its mass , prepare it the least dense exoplanet ever found . There is no analog in our Solar System for it , and it ’s even considered uncommon among exoplanets . New observations have revealed that the planet also has a very interesting atmosphere .
As reported inAstronomy & Astrophysics , an international team has recover the fingerprint of several alkali metals such as Li , sodium , and potassium . Some of these metal have never been detected before in an exoplanet . The observation have also shown another authoritative feature article . The planet must have a clear ambience and cloud cover that only extends to about 50 percentage .
" The particular characteristic of this planet provide us to execute a elaborate discipline of its full-bodied atmospheric penning , " first author Dr Guo Chen , from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias ( IAC ) , say in astatement . " The presence of lithium is important to understand the evolutionary history of the erratic organisation and could throw light on the mechanism of satellite organisation . "
The mien of lithium is not unsurprising . The exoplanet ’s innkeeper whiz WASP-127 is Li racy , a fact that gives astronomers a few ideas about its nature . The star is over twice the age of the Sun and it might have already evolve into a exceptional type of reddish giant . or else , the extra lithium might come from a nearby supernova explosion . The team might have also check a wind of water in the datum but it ’s too other to tell .
" While this detection is not statistically significant , as piddle features are fallible in the visible range , our data indicate that additional observation in the near - infrared should be able-bodied to detect it , " explain co - author Enric Pallé , also from IAC .
The observations were conducted from reason - base telescope in La Palma , in the Canary Islands . " The sensing of a trace component such as lithium in a planetal atmosphere is a major breakthrough and motivates new stick with - up observance and elaborate theoretical modelling to sustain the finding , " said co - author Dr Nikku Madhusudhan from Cambridge ’s Institute of Astronomy .
Planet - hunting telescopeTESSis presently in orbit and the James Webb Space Telescope , which will ( hopefully ) fly in the next few years , can provide corroboration on the current findings and see even further into this exoplanet ’s uncanny atmosphere .
