{"id":8683,"date":"2022-12-09T03:49:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T08:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=8683"},"modified":"2022-12-09T03:49:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T08:49:55","slug":"how-the-hell-planet-got-so-hot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=8683","title":{"rendered":"How the \u2018Hell Planet\u2019 Got So Hot"},"content":{"rendered":"
An artist\u2019s impression of the planet Janssen, which orbits its star so closely that its entire surface is a lava ocean that reaches temperatures of around 2,000 degrees Celsius.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New research sheds light on how the \u201chell planet\u201d got so devilishly hot and how other worlds might become too toasty for life. That rocky world, 55 Cnc e (nicknamed \u201cJanssen\u201d), orbits its star so closely that a year lasts just 18 hours, its surface is a giant lava ocean, and its interior may be chock-full of diamond.<\/p>\n

The fresh insights come thanks to a new tool called EXPRES that captured ultra-precise measurements of the starlight shining from Janssen\u2019s sun, known as Copernicus or 55 Cnc. The light measurements ever-so-slightly shifted as Janssen moved between Earth and the star (an effect akin to our moon blocking the sun during a solar eclipse).<\/p>\n

By analyzing those measurements, astronomers discovered that Janssen orbits Copernicus along the star\u2019s equator \u2014 unlike Copernicus\u2019 other planets, which are on such different orbital paths that they never even cross between the star and Earth, the researchers report December 8 in Nature Astronomy<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The implication is that Janssen probably formed in a relatively cooler orbit further out and slowly fell toward Copernicus over time. As Janssen moved closer in, the stronger gravitational pull from Copernicus altered the planet\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned about how this multi-planet system \u2014 one of the systems with the most planets that we\u2019ve found \u2014 got into its current state,\u201d says study lead author Lily Zhao, a research fellow at the Flatiron Institute<\/a>\u2019s Center for Computational Astrophysics<\/a> (CCA) in New York City.<\/p>\n

An artist\u2019s impression of the planet Janssen (orange circle), which orbits its star so closely that its entire surface is a lava ocean that reaches temperatures of around 2,000 degrees Celsius.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even in its original orbit, the planet \u201cwas likely so hot that nothing we\u2019re aware of would be able to survive on the surface,\u201d Zhao says. Still, the new findings could help scientists better understand how planets form and move around over time. Such information is critical to finding out just how common Earth-like environments are in the universe and, therefore, how abundant extraterrestrial life may be.<\/p>\n