Wasp 121b has a water stratosphere

[insert_name]

NASA has confirmed that wasp 121b has stratosphere made of extremely hot steam!

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6909

[ProtoJeb21]

1 hour ago, insert_name said:

NASA has confirmed that wasp 121b has stratosphere made of extremely hot steam!

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6909

Talk about an absolute Steam Giant! My original classification for a Steam Giant is an evaporated Water Giant/Ocean Planet that is basically a gas dwarf made of steam. But this...is something else entirely. It's a near-twin of WASP-12b with a temperature as hot as the Hyper-Earth candidates Tartarus and Thanatos.

The WASP project and its planets have made quite a lot of atmospheric discoveries this year. First was the completely different cloud structures of WASP-67b and a HAT-P planet, then the detection of water vapor in the skies of the incredibly puffy super-Neptune WASP-127b, then the ancient atmosphere of a WASP planet I don't remember, THEN the twin planets WASP-101b and WASP-31b, and now this. Whew. What great progress in the study of extrasolar atmospheres! It's amazing!

Article on the twin Hot Jupiters: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2017/07/27/two-planets-found-in-two-different-systems-are-almost-twins-infographic/#757027a86cc8

Oh and also ruby and sapphire rains were found to possibly be on WASP-12b a few months back.

[UmbralRaptor]

The paper, and a second closely related one. Also, is this the ArXiv preprint?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about the Vanadium oxide. I'm also confused on what the relative concentrations of H₂O and VO are, and what sort of scale height the atmosphere would have in that region. Are these things that are impractical to find at the present?

[sevenperforce]

This is awesome!

[ProtoJeb21]

Forbes article with a very detailed infographic on the planet and its atmosphere:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2017/08/06/scientists-have-confirmed-an-important-theory-about-exoplanets-infographic/2/#4263dd5f78b0

Apparently, this planet orbits around the star's poles, because WHO NEEDS LOGIC. Also, along with a really off-kilter orbit, WASP-121b is one of the most horrific planets ever found. It is incredibly hot, even in the night side, where temperatures can reach a staggering 1,800 Kelvin, or 2,780*F. And that's the COLDEST the planet gets! Front side temperatures reach 2,700 Kelvin, or 4,400*F - the same temperature as @Cabbink's Hyper-Earth known as Thanatos, and about as hot as TRAPPIST-1. But of course it gets worse. The stratosphere, which may be laced with metal vapor, is around 3,700 Kelvin - which is SIX THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED DEGREES Fahrenheit. That's hotter than TRAPPIST-1, Proxima Centauri, and even EPIC 220221272. And, of course, WASP-121b is being tidally squeezed, evaporated, and ripped apart by its huge host star all at once.

*sigh*. You know, I was hoping we could have a NORMAL year for exoplanets in 2017, but again and again there have been so many new flavors of hell being discovered. You have the Hyper-Earths Tartarus and Thanatos (both hotter than TRAPPIST-1 and likely around the mass of Saturn), then KELT-9b at over 7,000*F, then these two horrific candidates I found with temperatures close to 9,000*F, then the hyper-dense Earth-sized planet orbiting every 4 hours, then THIS.

[Cabbink]

32 minutes ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

Forbes article with a very detailed infographic on the planet and its atmosphere:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2017/08/06/scientists-have-confirmed-an-important-theory-about-exoplanets-infographic/2/#4263dd5f78b0

Apparently, this planet orbits around the star's poles, because WHO NEEDS LOGIC. Also, along with a really off-kilter orbit, WASP-121b is one of the most horrific planets ever found. It is incredibly hot, even in the night side, where temperatures can reach a staggering 1,800 Kelvin, or 2,780*F. And that's the COLDEST the planet gets! Front side temperatures reach 2,700 Kelvin, or 4,400*F - the same temperature as @Cabbink's Hyper-Earth known as Thanatos, and about as hot as TRAPPIST-1. But of course it gets worse. The stratosphere, which may be laced with metal vapor, is around 3,700 Kelvin - which is SIX THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED DEGREES Fahrenheit. That's hotter than TRAPPIST-1, Proxima Centauri, and even EPIC 220221272. And, of course, WASP-121b is being tidally squeezed, evaporated, and ripped apart by its huge host star all at once.

*sigh*. You know, I was hoping we could have a NORMAL year for exoplanets in 2017, but again and again there have been so many new flavors of hell being discovered. You have the Hyper-Earths Tartarus and Thanatos (both hotter than TRAPPIST-1 and likely around the mass of Saturn), then KELT-9b at over 7,000*F, then these two horrific candidates I found with temperatures close to 9,000*F, then the hyper-dense Earth-sized planet orbiting every 4 hours, then THIS.

Polar orbit huh? Hmmm.....

Sounds terrifing.

Also, if it was not tidal locked, how would sunrises look? 

Edited August 8, 2017 by Cabbink

[Cabbink]

Wait a second....

Couldn't the gas in the center of the planet turn to plasma? We already know steam giants have a runaway greenhouse. This heats planets at the going point up to 2400K+. 

What could it do to the water here? Water ionized at 12000 K (turns into plasma). If there is water that gets to the "surface" of the planet, does it ionize? 

And how old is the planet and star? I would like to know how all of that water stayed.