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As the study of planets outside our solar system continues, astronomers have discovered what they have described as the ‘most extreme planet’ ever observed, with surface temperatures more blistering than those of some stars.
Researchers at the University of Bern say that the exoplanet, dubbed WASP-189b, is a gaseous giant 1.6 times larger than Jupiter and can record temperatures of up to 3,200 degrees Celsius, hot enough enough to met all rocks and metal and turn them into gaseous form.
The planet, they said, orbits the star HD 133112, known to be one of the hottest stars with a planetary system 2,000 degrees Celsius hotter than our Sun.
Despite being an enormous gaseous giant, WASP-189b is situated much closer to its star than Jupiter is to the sun, and so only take 2.7 days to orbit its star, with one side experiencing a permanent ‘night’ and the other a permanent ‘day’.
“WASP-189b is especially interesting because it is a gas giant that orbits very close to its host star,” astrophysicist Monika Lendl said, according to the university’s press release. “It takes less than three days for it to circle its star, and it is 20 times closer to it than Earth is to the Sun.”
