They are among the most extreme environments in our galaxy.
Ultra-hot worlds
Discovered in 2016, WASP-76b is perhaps the most well-known of these ultra-hot worlds.
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But theres no doubt that the conditions on WASP-76b are totally unlike anything here on Earth.
(European Space Observatory/L.
Rather than looking at the exoplanets directly, we often have to find ways to infer their presence instead.
These indirect methods have actually been responsible for most of the exoplanets weve discovered.
As a bonus, we can use these methods to peer into the exoplanets atmospheres as well.
This is the idea behindtransit spectroscopy.
This can help us learn more about what conditions on the exoplanet are actually like.
So whats going on?
One possibility is that WASP-76bs atmosphere is even hotter than the 2,400 C wed previously thought.
Another possibility is that powerful winds are unearthing ionized calcium atoms from the exoplanets depths.
A recent study actually suggested thatWASP-76b may have winds as fast as 22 kilometres per second.
Like us, their data showedmore ionized calcium than expected.
Theres clearly much more going on in WASP-76bs atmosphere than wed thought.
Theres no doubt that WASP-76bs weird, wild atmosphere is just the beginning of what were going to uncover.
