This is an artistic simulation of WASP 127b orbiting a star. Credit: Gabriel Pérez, SMM (IAC).
Scientists have observed a rare gaseous planet, with partly clear skies, and strong signatures of alkali metals in its atmosphere. The extrasolar planet WASP-127b is one of the least dense exoplanets ever found. It has a radius 1.4 times greater than Jupiter, but only 20% of its mass. Such a planet has no analogue in the solar system and is rare even within the exoplanet diversity. It takes just over four days to complete an orbit around its parent star and its surface temperature is around 1400 K (1127 ° C).
The observations of WASP-127b reveal the presence of a large concentration of alkali metals in its atmosphere, allowing simultaneous detections of Sodium, Potassium and Lithium, for the fi...
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