Interesting Objects (planets, moons, etc.)

[shaberon]

I'd like to try a different approach in this area.

For one, there are so, so many threads created, this sub-forum is extra boggy and difficult. Secondly, for what I am about to post, it will never qualify as a "thread", because it is limited information with not much else to say about it.

The category could be differentiated from, for example, "unusual radiation" such as The Finch that was discovered very recently is amazing. Something like the actual Cosmology, i. e. arguments for Steady State or Plasma Universe, clearly merits a thread focusing that one topic.

If anyone else finds something, or, maybe, we can collect and cross-link things from any number of prior posts, that would be fine.

I would much rather collect on one page, than have to scroll, click around, or search through so many frayed ends. Most of the other sub-forums are ok for the way stuff is arranged, but this one is particularly frustrating.

Doesn't have to be new stuff...Jupiter is rather weird and it gets *some* updates, like a while back we have a post about twelve moons, which are currently up to ninety-five, and some of those are bizarre.


Today it is Hell Planet, which is vaguely similar to Jupiter's moon Io, where it possibly rains diamonds. This one is very nearly the inverse.




Known as 55 Cancri e, or Janssen, the extremely hot planet orbits a distant star in the constellation Cancer. What is remarkable is that it does so at a very close distance, completing one rotation around its Sun-like host star in only 18 hours. Dubbed the "hell planet," it has also been giving off odd "signals" that have baffled scientists.

Mysterious signals that a super-Earth, dubbed the “hellish” planet and located about 50 light-years away from Earth, has been sending for close to two decades appear to have been finally deciphered by scientists.

The reason for the signals are the volcanoes peppering the surface of this world, boasting the name of 55 Cancri e, or also Janssen. Apparently, when they periodically spring alive, they spew hot carbon-rich gas, with the latter an atmosphere. But once that atmosphere is burnt off by the high temperatures caused by the planet's extremely close orbit, the process reoccurs again, according to the study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. For comparison's sake, the distance between 55 Cancri e and its host star is two percent of the distance between Earth and the Sun.

This super-Earth - a type of exoplanet with a mass greater than our planet - is a rocky world about eight times as massive as Earth. It was discovered in 2004 orbiting a Sun-like star (Copernicus, or 55 Cancri) at a distance of less than 1.5 million miles in the constellation Cancer. The fact that the exoplanet moves on an orbit around its host at a very close distance, completing one rotation around it in only 18 hours, basically means that a year on that planet lasts exactly that long. With the surface temperature on the planet apparently “far above the melting point of typical rock-forming minerals,” the day side of 55 Cancri e “is thought to be covered in oceans of lava,” NASA previously reported. As to its core, it is believed to have a core made of diamond.

As to the signals coming from the super-Earth, they have long baffled scientists. These transit signals are, specifically, the light that is visible from Earth when 55 Cancri e moves across the face of its host star, in an eclipse, as well as when when it passes behind Copernicus.

Accordingly, as observations have revealed, the atmosphere of 55 Cancri e is very unstable, with the situation being such that sometimes the exoplanet has an atmosphere, and sometimes it doesn't. Researchers have noted that this theory explaining the signals needs to be tested, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Once the temperature and pressure of the planet's atmosphere have been measured, scientists will be able to finally determine the timeline for the presence of an atmosphere on the "hellish" planet.

[shaberon]

This is a curious core sample:

In a significant development, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission has discovered an unusual and unidentified material in samples from the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu. The finding comes alongside evidence of organic molecules, offering new insights into the origins of life on Earth.

Scientists are intrigued by a perplexing discovery in samples retrieved from the asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, one that appears to be defying current understanding.

The samples from the 3-billion-year-old asteroid that were collected in late 2020 and described as dark, carbon-rich, and organic molecule-laden resemble "hummocky boulders" with a unique, rough texture. The specimen were obtained in late 2020 and only touched down on Earth about two months back.

Interestingly, Dante Lauretta, the mission's principal investigator, noted during a conference held by the American Geophysical Union that these particles have a tendency to cling to any surface they touch.

"We definitely have hydrated, organic-rich remnants from the early solar system, which is exactly what we were hoping when we first conceived this mission almost 20 years ago," Lauretta said.

The OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft, designed for a brief six-second contact with Bennu, unexpectedly plunged deeper and longer into the asteroid's surface.

This led to an over-collection of material, resulting in some of it escaping from the sample collector's head into the outer lid, due to a stone jamming open a small flap.

Currently, technicians are facing challenges in accessing the bulk of the collected sample due to two faulty fasteners. While awaiting new tools, officials have managed to collect 70.3 grams of the material, surpassing the anticipated 60 grams.
Initial spectral analysis of the material has revealed an unexplained dominant blue spectral signature, hinting at possibly higher water content than expected. Additionally, the samples show high levels of magnesium, sodium, and phosphorus, which adds to the mystery.

[shaberon]

This is a new Webb Infrared of Uranus and nine of its moons: