SCIENCE LAB SCENICS : WEIRD WORLDS

WEBB telescope finds a super-stretchy gas giant : PSR J2322, an object the mass of Jupiter studied recently by James Webb Space Telescope, has a distinction that sets it apart:

Its equatorial diameter is about 38 percent wider than its polar diameter, giving the planet the appearance of a lemon, and a very strange atmosphere.

'' It's the stretchiest planet that we've confirmed the stretchiness of,'' said Michael Zhang, an exoplanet scientist at the University of Chicago and the lead author of a paper describing the planet published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

More than 2,000 light-years from Earth, PSR J2322-2650b was discovered in 2011 by the Parkes radio telescope in Australia. The planet was found to be orbiting a pulsar, the only known gas giant to do so.

Being one million miles away from the dense, rapidly spinning supernova leftover, which shoots jets of radiation, gives the planet its unusual shape as the pulsar gravity pulls on it.

'' It's close enough that things are actually being funneled from the object to the pulsar, '' said Peter Gao, an exoplanet scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, and an author of the paper.

'' You have a literal tip, like a point, where material actually comes out of the planet and spirals in.''

Using the Webb telescope's infrared capabilities, the team was able to study PSR J2322- 2650b's atmosphere, the first time this has been done for a planet orbiting a pulsar : Those observations hinted at the odd shape, and they also revealed something bizarre :

The planet is devoid of hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, elements common on other planets, including gas giants.

Instead, it is made mostly of helium and molecular carbon.

'' A helium and carbon-dominated world is something we've never seen before,'' Dr. Gao said.

This Publishing continues to Part [ 2 ]. The World Students Society thanks Jonathan O' Callaghan.