Scientist thought that Venus’s weather was bad. From the planet’s acid rain, to the horrendous temperatures and pressures to the clouds that smother the planet in sulfuric acid. It’s the closest image that scientist have to depicting hell. But what if there’s something that may be even worse? What if Earth’s raging twin actually has a calm temperament compared to other planets.
This was found to be exactly the case with exoplanet WASP 7-B. This gas giant exoplanet has completely expelled anything in our solar system from being “the possible scariest/worse.” During the day, WASP 7-B reached scorching temperatures of up to 2,400 degrees Celsius (enough to vaporize metal). The night gives off a picture that’s just as daunting: iron rain. Found in the Pisces constellation, this planet rest about 640 light-years from out solar system. It has been nicknamed a “hot Jupiter” because while being only slightly smaller than Jupiter, it sits ten times closer to its star than Mercury does to the Sun! This extreme proximity has caused WASP 7-B to be a tidally locked star, with one side of the planet living in an eternal day while the other side never sees the end of the night. The proximity also causes WASP 7-B to get about 1000 times more radiation than the Earth does from the Sun.
This is an artist depiction of the iron rain from https://astronomy.com/news/2020/03/astronomers-find-an-exoplanet-where-iron-rains-from-the-sky.
Hi Abrianna!
Thank you for sharing this incredibly unique weather on WASP 7-B, I never knew that we had discovered and recorded an exoplanet that had such high temperatures and iron rain. I didn’t even know it was possible for it to rain iron! Though now that I think about it, it’s completely feasible with high enough temperatures. That’s so interesting! I wonder how the exoplanet is a gas-giant while being so close to its star? We learned in class that a planet would normally only become a gas-giant far away from the Sun, past the frost line, but this one seems extremely close and hot! It would be interesting to find out how this planet formed.
(Hope you’re staying safe and feeling well!)
– Vivian Li
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