Astronomers have detected barium around the ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b.
Even with these exotic and violent conditions, astronomers still weren't expecting to find barium, which is 2.5 times as heavy as iron, in the atmosphere of either WASP-76 b or WASP-121 b.
released by the European Southern Observatory, which operates some of the telescopes used in the researchThe high gravity of the planets means that scientists would expect heavy elements like barium to quickly fall into the lower layers of the atmosphere, so the detection was surprising. Azevedo Silva and his colleagues aren't sure what natural process could have left barium, which on Earth gives fireworks a bright green color, in the atmosphere of WASP-76 b or WASP-121 b.
Astronomers use a technique called spectroscopy to investigate the chemical composition of exoplanets. Spectroscopy is based on the fact that, so when starlight shines through the atmosphere of a world from its parent star, elements within the atmosphere give the light a specific"fingerprint."
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