homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Rubies and sapphires rain down on huge planet

Still a hellish planet, but a beautiful hellish planet at that.

Dragos Mitrica
January 5, 2017 @ 12:08 am

share Share

Astronomers have found that the clouds on a gas giant called HAT-P-7b are made of corundum – the mineral which forms rubies and sapphires.

Artistic representation of the planet. Image credits: University of Warwick / Mark Garlick

HAT-P-7b is larger and hotter than Jupiter. Due to proximity to its star, its temperature is estimated to be 2500 C (or 4500 F). To make things even more hellish, signs of powerful changing winds have been identified on the planet – the first time ever that weather systems have been found on a gas giant outside our solar system.

Dr. David Armstrong in Warwick’s Astrophysics Group monitored the planet, studying how light is reflected from its atmosphere. He found that the brightest point of the planet shifts its position, due to the effect of strong equatorial jets which push vast amounts of clouds around the planet. Dr Armstrong comments on the discovery:

“Using the NASA Kepler satellite we were able to study light reflected from HAT-P-7b’s atmosphere, finding that the atmosphere was changing over time. HAT-P-7b is a tidally locked planet, with the same side always facing its star. We expect clouds to form on the cold night side of the planet, but they would evaporate quickly on the hot dayside.

“These results show that strong winds circle the planet, transporting clouds from the night side to the dayside. The winds change speed dramatically, leading to huge cloud formations building up then dying away. This is the first detection of weather on a gas giant planet outside the solar system.”

A side discovery of this study was that the clouds on this planet are likely made of corundum, a crystalline form of aluminium oxide (Al2O3). Corundum is the mineral that forms rubies and sapphires and the sight of such clouds would undoubtedly be spectacular. Still a hellish planet, but a beautiful hellish planet at that.

First discovered in 2008, HAT-P-7b is 320 parsecs (over 1040 light years) away from us. It is an exoplanet 40% larger than Jupiter and 500 times more massive than the Earth – and orbits a star 50% more massive, and twice as large, as the Sun.

The paper, ‘Variability in the Atmosphere of the Hot Jupiter HAT-P-7’, is published in the first issue of Nature Astronomy.

share Share

A Simple Heat Hack Could Revolutionize How We Produce Yogurt

In principle, the method could be deployed tomorrow, researchers say.

Scientists Create a ‘Smart Sponge’ That Knows When to Heal and When to Fight Inflammation

This hydrogel could help millions of people lead a better life.

The Race to the Bottom: Japan Is Set to Start Testing Deep-Sea Mining

There's a big hidden cost to this practice.

Japan Just Smashed the Internet Speed World Record and It's Much Faster Than You Think

Researchers transmitted 127,500 GB every second — over the distance from Chicago to Dallas.

Can You Tell Which Knot Is Strongest? Most People Fail This Surprisingly Tough Challenge

Knots are a test of physical intuition and most of us are failing hard.

Scientists Call for a Global Pause on Creating “Mirror Life” Before It’s Too Late: “The threat we’re talking about is unprecedented”

Creating synthetic lifeforms is almost here, and the consequences could be devastating.

For the First Time Ever We Can See Planets Starting to Form Around a Star

JWST and ALMA peered through a natural opening in the star’s surrounding cloud to catch the action up close.

There might be an anti-aging secret hiding in magic mushrooms

Psilocybin extends cell life, and preserves aging DNA structures.

Not Just Hunters: Wooden Tools Unearth the Sophisticated, Plant-Eating World of Early Humans

What if the Stone Age wasn't really about stone?

This is How Exercise Supercharges the Immune System Against Cancer

Exercise reshapes gut bacteria to supercharge immune response against tumors.