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Astronomers Discover Hottest Known Giant Planet | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Caption:

The dwarf planet Sedna, the only other object known in the
region of the newly discovered dwarf planet 2012 VP113, is seen in
this illustration released by NASA on Wednesday. | REUTERS


London – American astronomers have discovered the hottest planet ever known, with a dayside temperature of more than 4,300 degrees Celsius.

The study, which was published in the Journal Nature, stated that the high temperature is due to the very close distance between the planet and its star, and it completes an orbit around its sun in 1.5 Earth days.

Astronomers pointed out that the star, KELT-9, is bigger than the sun and nearly twice as hot as it.

In a statement, researchers from the University of Nashville, said KELT -9 emits ultraviolet radiation that the plant might evaporate completely.

For comparison, the temperature on the sun’s surface is around 5400 degree Celsius. However, stars generate power through nuclear fusion in higher temperatures up to over 15 million degree Celsius.

This giant planet called “KELT -9” is 650 lights years away from the earth in the Cygnus constellation. Its mass is three times bigger than Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system.

Because of its high temperature, the new planet’s atmosphere in inflated, which makes its density equals around half of Jupiter’s density.

The planet is one sided to the star at all times, which means that this side is always daytime and with a very hot temperature.

Astronomers considered that despite this orb is a planet according to the common astrological definitions, its atmosphere definitely defers from all other discovered planets, mainly because of its day side.

Researchers suggest that this planet has a hot gassy backside similar to a comet. But researcher still seek to prove this by using a telescope and other tools for detection. Astronomers hope to reach more information on planetary systems outside the solar system through further researches.

They explained that the gassy KELT -9 giant planet will be used as an important sample of studies to make more discoveries about the development of the planets, their destruction, and the reasons behind its destruction.