LTT-9779B is a rare "beast" found in the "hot desert of Neptune". This region was formed due to the rapid evaporation of the atmospheres of low-mass planets that are too close to the star. Today we are going to talk about one of the planets, which is very close to the parent star and orbits the parent star in just 19 hours.
Astrophysicists believe that the planet's surface temperature exceeds the melting point of steel, which theoretically makes the existence of LTT-9779b impossible. After all, she should have evaporated from the world a long time ago. But contrary to logic, it still exists.
However, scientists believe that LTT-9779B's atmosphere is thinning due to light evaporation. The parent star heats the planet's upper atmosphere with its intense X-rays and ultraviolet radiation and releases atmospheric gases into space.
A distinguishing feature of this planet may be one of its preservation from extinction. The planet has dense clouds, which reverse most of the rays that fall on it. The heat is absorbed by the upper atmosphere and emitted back into space through the visible layer of infrared radiation. Maybe that's why the Earth hasn't been ** yet.
LTT-9779B weighs twice as much as Neptune and is slightly larger in size, but has a similar average density to Neptune. From this, it follows that the planet must have a huge core with a mass of about 28 Earth masses and its atmosphere should account for about 9% of the total mass.
The parent planet, LTT-9779, is still very young. Its system has only half the time of the solar system. It's very close to us – 260 light-years away. The mass of the star is close to the mass of the Sun, and the radius is not much smaller - 0949 suns.
However, this celestial body is rich in metals: its atmosphere contains twice as much iron as our stars. Scientists who discovered it believe that the planet was originally a light gas giant that later migrated into the system and quickly lost its atmosphere.
At the moment, it is not entirely clear how Neptune LTT-9779B was formed. As a result of the spillover process, the atmospheric gas of the planet is transferred to the star in large quantities.
As a result of these processes and the extreme proximity to the parent body, the gravity of the parent body absorbs the outer layers of its atmosphere, and the mass of the exoplanet decreases. But the enormous rotational speed and the resulting centrifugal force prevent it from falling to the surface of the star.
The researchers clarified that LTT-9779 has now lost between 2 and 9 Earth-mass hydrogen and helium. This process will continue until LTT-9779 loses all of its atmosphere.