This is how the lava planets that exist outside our solar system are

0
52

Exoplanets are giving astronomy lovers much joy due to the curious discoveries that are being made around them. Among all of them, a planet model that is being found many more times than one could have imagined is the world of lava. This place has now been the target of a series of simulations that allow us to know exactly what these “lands of fire” are like.

Astronomers rejoice whenever new information about extrasolar planets is provided. They are a source of surprises and attractiveness incomparable to anything else that space science has given in recent years because we can come across things like the Mantas Zilinskas research. As we are going to tell you, their simulation models of the lava planet are going around the world and astonishing even the most expert.

An Earth with oceans of lava

To imagine that something like this can be real and not part of a movie or a video game is impressive. Think of a world in which the surface does not have oceans of water, but is formed by fire, by a lava that causes that planet to be at a totally impossible temperature. As we told you, this is a common exoplanet model that has been found repeatedly among the more than 5,000 planets that have been discovered in recent decades.

Mantas Zilinskas’s work has focused on something very useful: being able to simulate the atmospheres of these lava planets so that it is later easier to identify all those worlds using the James Webb Space Telescope. For the author of the study, which has already received the approval of the great minds of astronomy, it was crucial to find a way to explore these strange planets more closely and about which we still know so little.

Think beyond the known

The community of astronomers has been very surprised by the work that Zilinskas has done because it has raised a series of ideas that are risky, but within accepted practices they achieve their goal. He has started taking into account what, today, is known about these lava worlds. Scientists have been able to calculate some features by crossing the data with the mass of the planet, with the distance it is from its main star or its radius. He also knows that using spectroscopes one can delve into atmospheres, but not in the way he has. The limitations and problems generated by the use of a spectroscope were something that he wanted to leave behind with his project.

In the end, what he has decided is to create a mathematical model that what he does is create simulations in which he predicts what astronomers will be able to analyze. In this way, what his system does is put the astronomer in the direction he needs to take to meet the exoplanet and also indicates what is going to be found on it. This is an invaluable help, since you can save large periods of time for calculations and research or searches that lead to nothing.

Exploring a lava planet

What Mantas Zilinskas tells is that these lava exoplanets that have been discovered before, show, thanks to their simulation, a series of conditions about what they are like inside. More exactly, he describes the atmosphere of these planets, anticipating, with his calculations, the discovery of it. He tells astronomers that the atmosphere of such worlds is made up of silicates that evaporate into oceans of lava that form the surface. With evaporation, the silicates create a very thin and tenuous atmosphere of which the chemical composition is not yet known. However, the specialist mentions that the next objective is to get to know this composition to have a better knowledge of this type of planets.

They also know that these planets are larger than Earth, and that the reason lava flows relentlessly is because the world is so close to its parent star. From there, it remains to know other details of these lava planets. But, thanks to their work, astronomers are closer to analyzing them in their entirety.

Previous articleThis is what will increase the price of manufacturing a car with Euro 7
Next articleThis way you save mobile data on Instagram

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here