Some believe that the biblical notion of “Hell” is nothing more than a bad fairy tale for frightening and manipulating people. But when you consider how the conditions from exoplanets such as the WASP-76b are, you suddenly become convinced that Hell is real. We’re talking about an extremely hot exoplanet that cannot serve as a destination place in the future unless you’re the biggest masochist of all.
WASP-76b is an ultra-hot alien world where the temperatures reach levels so high that iron will vaporize itself. But the planet could be even hotter than previously known, as a new article from Phys.org reveals.
The presence of ionized calcium suggests even hotter temperatures than previously thought
Thanks to the work of an international team of scientists from the University of Toronto, Cornell University, and Queen’s University Belfast, we know that ionized calcium exists on the WASP-76b exoplanet. This is a hint that the atmospheric temperature could be higher than initially thought.
Ray Jayawardhana, a co-author of the study, declared as quoted by Phys.org:
It’s remarkable that with today’s telescopes and instruments, we can already learn so much about the atmospheres—their constituents, physical properties, presence of clouds and even large-scale wind patterns—of planets that are orbiting stars hundreds of light-years away.
The WASP-76b exoplanet is located 637 light-years away from Earth, meaning a lot more than any spaceship created by astronomers could travel during a human lifetime. The planet was discovered way back in 2013, and it’s located in the constellation known as “Pisces”. The exoplanet also orbits the F-type star BD+01 316, and it has the size of 0.92 that of the mass of Jupiter.
With or without ionized calcium, we must keep in mind that WASP-76b is still scorching hot and definitely a terrible place to spend a vacation.
