The European Southern Observatory (ESO) reports that ESO's Very Large Telescope-Interferometer (VLTI) GRAVITY instrument has made the first direct observations of an exoplanet using optical interferometry.
We are talking about the planet HR8799e, which orbits the young star HR8799, located at a distance of about 129 light years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus.
Discovered in 2010, HR8799e is a super-Jupiter: this exoplanet is both much more massive and much younger than any planet in the Solar System. The age of the body is estimated at 30 million years.
Observations have shown that HR8799e is an extremely hostile world. The unspent energy of formation and the powerful greenhouse effect heated the exoplanet to a temperature of about 1000 degrees Celsius.
Moreover, it was found that the object has a complex atmosphere with iron-silicate clouds. At the same time, the entire planet is engulfed in a colossal storm.
βOur observations indicate the existence of a gas ball illuminated from within, with rays of light breaking through storm-ridden areas of dark clouds. Convection acts on clouds consisting of iron-silicate particles, these clouds are destroyed and their contents fall into the planet. All this creates a picture of the dynamic atmosphere of a giant exoplanet in the process of birth, in which complex physical and chemical processes take place,β experts say.
Source: 3dnews.ru