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Journalism of Courage
Astronomers have found what is the most reflective planet ever discovered using data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Cheops satellite. The planet has a thick layer of reflective metal clouds, essentially turning it into a gigantic mirror when viewed by observatories.
Venus has a thick cloud layer that reflects about 75 per cent of the Sun’s light. This is why it is the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. For context, the Earth only reflects around 30 per cent of the incoming sunlight. What about LTT9779 b, the newly-discovered planet? It reflects a massive 80 per cent of the light it receives from its host star.
This exoplanet is about the size of Neptune, which according to ESA, makes it the largest mirror in the universe that we know. The metallic clouds are mostly made of silicate, which is what sand and glass are made of. There are also other metals like titanium mixed into the clouds. The blazing-hot exoplanet is so close to its host star that it completes an orbit in less than a day.
A study on the planet and its unique properties has been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The burning planet is very close to its stars and has heavy clouds of metal floating while it rains drops of titanium.
“It was really a puzzle, until we realised we should think about this cloud formation in the same way as condensation forming in a bathroom after a hot shower. To steam up a bathroom you can either cool the air until water vapour condenses, or you can keep the hot water running until clouds form because the air is so saturated with vapour that it simply can’t hold any more. Similarly, LTT9779 b can form metallic clouds despite being so hot because the atmosphere is oversaturated with silicate and metal vapours,” explained Vivien Parmentiar, co-author of the study, in a press statement. Parmentier is a researcher at the Observatory of Côte d’Azur in France.
The planet’s size and temperature make it what is called an “ultra-hot neptune.” According to Parmentiar, no other such planet has been found to orbit so close to its host star and it is a “planet that shouldn’t exist,” because researchers expect such planets to have their atmosphere blown away by their star, leaving bare rock.
Those metal clouds could be the reason for the planet to continue as it is, the researchers believe. The clouds reflect a lot of the starlight, preventing the planet’s atmosphere from getting too hot and evaporating. The metals also mean that the atmosphere is too heavy to be blown away.
