Many natural phenomena that occur on Earth also occur on other planets in the solar system. But it especially attracts attention if this happens on a planet outside the solar system. Whereas if this incident is the formation of a rainbow then it is even more surprising. Scientists have recently found evidence indicating the presence of something like a rainbow on an exoplanet. Which has also confused the scientists a lot.
“Glory” is a phenomenon that occurs when light hits clouds made of uniform materials in the form of spherical droplets. It is believed that this phenomenon is explaining a mystery in the observations of the exoplanet named WASP-76B. To know this we have to understand this planet.
WASP-76B is a planet filled with scorching gas, where it rains molten iron. CHEOPS researchers from ESA and the University of Bern in Switzerland detected additional light on the planet’s night side ahead of the eclipse. Because WASP-76B is a very hot exoplanet, clouds do not obscure the atmosphere during the day, making atmospheric identification easier.
In line with a previous study, researchers observed a disparity in iron content between day-side and night-side terminators. Additionally, there was not as much gaseous iron in the upper atmosphere of the day-side compared to the night-side.
Hubble observations show that thermal inversion on the night side of a planet causes iron to rain on the day side and form clouds of liquid iron. These clouds are important because when light from the star is reflected from them, it can create a glowing effect.
“Explaining the observation with the glory effect would require highly reflective, spherical droplets of spherical shape from aerosols and clouds over the planet’s eastern hemisphere,” said the paper, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Glory has been seen on Earth and in the clouds of Venus. These events may reveal more about the exoplanet’s atmospheric composition, including the presence of water and habitability. While WASP-76b’s glory has not yet been proven, it is very different from an ordinary rainbow.
Tags: Amazing news, Bizarre news, OMG News, Weird news
FIRST PUBLISHED: May 7, 2024, 12:47 IST
