Space, Solar System and the universe have been an endless mystery for humans for centuries. Even if a lot of research is done on it and a new planet, exoplanet, star or any other matter in space is discovered every day, it would not be right to believe that this is the end of it.
The researchers’ new discovery is an exoplanet made up of over 80 percent metal. This exoplanet, which is similar to Mercury in composition, is a kind of discovery similar to known planets that we have not seen for a long time. This shows us that the formation process of the Solar System is not unusual.
GJ 367b contains more than 80 percent metal
First of all, to clarify what an exoplanet is; We can say that it is called planets that are outside the Solar System and in another orbit. This new discovery is located 30 light-years from Earth and orbits a red dwarf star called GJ 367.
The new planet was discovered during NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and named GJ 367b. TESS displays light beams produced by the impact of an orbiting planet at short intervals. In the data used, a new image was acquired every two minutes for two weeks.
The new exoplanet completes its orbit around its star in a third of a day. GJ 367b has a small volume and a radius one-third that of Earth. However, its mass is more than half that of Earth. This shows that it is heavy compared to its mass. It drops more than 8 grams per cubic centimeter, meaning it’s heavier than iron.
GJ 367b is very close to the planet it orbits, meaning it has completed its orbit with only one side facing it. As it constantly turns on one side, it reaches a surface temperature of 1,745 Kelvin, which is close to the melting level of iron. This raises the possibility of the exoplanet having a rocky surface. But many types of rocks that contain silicon melt at similar temperatures. Researchers are still not entirely sure about this.
The research team transferred the statistics to an artificial intelligence and as a result predicted that GJ 367b has a structure very similar to Mercury. A metal and a metallic core are thought to have been detected, covering most of the planet’s contents and 85 percent of the surface. But the discovered exoplanet has a density 1.5 times that of Mercury.
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