(NLDO) - Super Earth 55 Cancri e has challenged the aggression of its parent star and created something that scientists almost cannot believe.
Super-Earth 55 Cancri e is a "hell" located in the 55 Cancri star system, 41 light years away from us.
55 Cancri e has been known to humanity for many years, is a rocky planet with a diameter nearly twice that of Earth and a mass nine times that of Earth.
But now, with the superior observational capabilities of the James Webb super telescope, American scientists realize that it could be an extremely unusual world.
Planet 55 Cancri e orbits very close to its hot parent star - Image: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScl
55 Cancri e is so dense that scientists deduce that it is composed mostly of carbon compressed into diamond.
But it was a bare diamond.
Although it is a rocky planet like Earth, 55 Cancri e is almost incapable of supporting life due to its surface temperature of up to 2,400 degrees Celsius.
It is located only 0.01544 times the Earth-Sun distance from its parent star, and a year there is only 17 hours on Earth.
This also resulted in the planet being stripped of its atmosphere by its parent star.
However, analyzing James Webb's latest observations of 55 Cancri e, a group of scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech - USA) found that this super Earth now... has an atmosphere.
“We measured the thermal emissions from this rocky planet, and the measurements showed that this planet has a significant atmosphere. This atmosphere is probably created by the outgassing of gases from the rocky interior of 55 Cancri e,” co-author Dr. Renyu Hu told Space.com.
Thus, this is the first time planetary scientists have found signs of a "secondary atmosphere".
That's what scientists call the second atmosphere created when a stripped-down planet shows its remarkable ability to "regenerate," returning to being an atmosphere-covered planet like Earth and most other planets.
According to the authors, it is the lava-covered surface of this super-Earth that gives it the ability to "regenerate".
Gases dissolved in 55 Cancri e's global magma ocean continually "bubble up" to form a secondary atmosphere. The composition of the secondary atmosphere depends on the rock material beneath it.
"If the rock is very reducing, it can also create a hydrogen-helium atmosphere like the primary atmosphere. But if the rock is more like the Earth's mantle, water, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide will dominate the secondary atmosphere," said Dr. Hu.
This discovery still needs some confirmation, but it's enough to show that this super-Earth is an interesting world, promising to help humanity learn more about an extreme, rare type of planet in the universe.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/phat-hien-sieu-trai-dat-kim-cuong-co-kha-nang-tai-sinh-196240509105836966.htm
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