Two Planets That Are Raining ‘Rocks’ Discovered

Astronomers, who started to discover planets outside our galaxy about 30 years ago, have focused on exoplanets since the early 1990s. While many new planets, galaxies, stars and moons have been discovered to date, some of them have surprised us with their unique features. As examples, we can count the planets WASP-76b, where molten iron rains appear, and HD 189733b, where glass showers occur.

Of course, new ones are constantly joining these interesting planets. The planet discovered with NASA’s Hubble telescope is exactly like that. The planet, which was originally discovered in 2017 and named KELT-20b, is on the agenda again due to the newly discovered rock rains. Many people against the evil in the world “Stones will rain on us!” Having discovered that their systems are virtually real, astronomers are now examining the meteorological makeup of WASP-187b and KELT-20b, which only experienced rock showers.

The planet is hot enough to melt the rock

Focusing especially on the planets WASP-187b and KELT-20b, NASA said on Wednesday that the two planets in question “to date”. “They have the hottest planetary atmospheres ever seen,” he said. While similar weather events were experienced on both planets, the formation of rock rains experienced on WASP-187b was also explained. According to NASA, the bright side of both planets is extremely hot, and the dark side, on the contrary, is extremely cold.

The rocks on the surface of the planets begin to melt on the bright side due to the star being too close. Melting rocks create clouds of gas and dust. This cloud of gas and dust travels to the dark side, reaching speeds of more than 3200 kilometers per hour.

Dark side, cold enough to turn rock solid

Another surprising event greets us when clouds of gas and dust traveling at great speed to the dark side come here. So much so that the pieces of rock that melt and fly on the side facing the star, when they come here, start to cool down and fall to the ground. This enables rock rains to occur in the hemisphere at the back. Very similar situations are observed on both planets. These two planets, which are also known as super-hot Jupiters in terms of structure, are probably the last among the planets that human beings would want to be on.

Finally, NASA underlines how much of an active role the star in the system plays on the planetary atmosphere, in addition to the information it provides about the planets.