MASCARA-2b/KELT-20b: Ultra Hot Exoplanet With Surface Temperature Of 2000 K – Studied

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – Researchers have studied an extrasolar planet, which has a surface temperature of around 2000 K.

MASCARA-2B/KELT-20b is an ultra hot Jupiter. It belongs to a new group of exoplanets, the hottest known until now.

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The reason for its high temperature is the proximity of its orbit around its host star, causing it to receive a large flux of radiation in the upper layers of its atmosphere.

To these observations, the team used the HARP-N spectrograph on the National Galileo Telescope (TNG) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma) and the CARMENES spectrograph on the 3.5 m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory (Almería).

“The two instruments sample slightly different wavelength regions, which allows us to sample a wider spectral range,” IAC researcher Núria Casasayas, says in a press release.

“We have been able to detect hydrogen beta, singly ionized iron and magnesium with data from HARPS-N, while the presence of ionized calcium was detected only by using CARMENES. Neutral sodium and hydrogen alpha are detected with both instruments.”

The study of exoplanetary atmospheres has become front line research in recent years.

Instruments that perform high-resolution spectroscopy allow us not only to discover the atmospheric composition of planets outside the Solar System, but also to measure other important parameters such as the temperatures of the layers where their constituents are found, and other parameters of the dynamics of the atmosphere.

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Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff