Scientists took a closer look at the atmosphere of an alien planet called WASP-127b. While probing different regions of WASP-127b, scientists detected sodium.
The presence of this element is not a new thing however in such an alien planet, but what is more surprising is that this element was found at a much lower altitude than expected.
Also, the researchers observed strange water vapour signals that were strong in the infrared but non-existent at visible wavelengths.
This somewhere implies that the water vapour at lower levels is being screened by clouds that are opaque at visible wavelengths. But these remain transparent in the infrared.
The results of this study were originally published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Atmosphere of the alien planet WASP-127b
Moreover, the scientists were also able to investigate the different regions of WASP-127b’s atmosphere. They used data from the Hubble Space Telescope and visible light measurements from the ESPRESSO Spectrograph at the European Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.
But the composition of these clouds on this alien planet is yet to be discovered. All they (scientists) know is that they are not composed of water droplets like on the planet earth.
WASP-127b was discovered in 2016. This exoplanet is said to be a ‘hot Saturn.’ Since it is a gas planet similar in mass to Saturn but orbits far closer to its sun.
As per the researchers, the exoplanet is found more than 525 light-years away. And it completes an orbit of its parent star in about four Earth days.
When it comes to WASP-127b, during its orbit, the alien planet receives 600 times more irradiation than earth causing temperatures on the alien world to reach 2,012 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 degrees Celsius).
But WASP-127b is also considered one of the ”fluffiest” exoplanets ever discovered, say, researchers.
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