The atmosphere of a distant exoplanet has been found to contain barium. If you want to find barium, you have to go further down the table. There is a heavy element found in an exoplanet atmosphere.
We are still learning how weird exoplanets can be.
Since the discovery of the first exoplanets in the mid 1990s, we know of thousands of them. Researchers used Hubble data to identify the atmosphere of an exoplanet. Some people thought it was lucky and wouldn't happen again. Were they correct?
We now have the power to see more of the atmosphere of exoplanets. The European Southern Observatory has one of the most powerful telescopes in the world. There is evidence of barium in the atmosphere of the two ultra-hot gas giants.
There is a study about detecting Barium in the atmospheres of gas giants. Toms Azevedo Silva is the lead author. The research was published in astronomy and astrophysics.
Both WASP-76b and WASP- 121b are hot Jupiters. There is a possibility that WASP-76b may experience iron rain because of the detection of iron in its atmosphere. The planet is still of interest to exoplanet scientists despite the follow-up studies presenting other explanations.
WASP- 121b is noteworthy. It is the first exoplanet where water is visible. Both planets are very close to their stars and have less than a day to travel around. Both planets have the same surface temperatures as the Sun.
The discovery of barium has made people more interested in these planets. There is no explanation for the presence of barium in the planets. There is a heavy element in the upper layers of the atmosphere of the planets.
Heavy elements like barium should be drawn from the surface of both Jupiter-sized planets. The heavier iron is in the lower atmosphere of both planets. The co-author of the paper said that heavy elements like barium would fall into the lower layers of the atmosphere.
It isn't up there by itself. The atmospheres of these planets are alien to us. The researchers were studying the strange atmospheres as part of their effort to constrain the atmospheric composition. They wanted to lay the groundwork for new research on their evolution environments.
Azevedo Silva said it was an accident. Since it had never been seen in any exoplanet before, we had to cross-check that this was coming from the planet. The team found a number of elements in the atmosphere. The lightest element ever found in an exoplanet is barium.
The two planets in the study can be used for research. Is it a sign that we can find them in other hot Jupiters? It might be possible. The presence of both WASP-76b and WASP-121b is some of the highest S/N dataset currently available.
The paper states that this heavy species can be found in the atmosphere of hot Jupiters.
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