Here’s a breakdown of the key facts from the provided text, focusing on the newly discovered exoplanet PSR J2322-2650 b:
* The Planet: PSR J2322-2650 b is an exoplanet (a planet outside our solar system) that is being studied by the James webb Space Telescope.
* Its Star: It orbits a pulsar named PSR J2322-2650. Pulsars are incredibly dense remnants of exploded massive stars – essentially, the star’s crushed core.This pulsar is remarkably dense, containing the mass of our sun within the size of a city.
* Distance: The star is approximately 750 light-years away from Earth. The planet itself orbits very close to its star – only about 1 million miles (Earth is about 100 million miles from the sun).
* Orbital Period: A year on this planet is incredibly short, lasting less than 8 hours.
* Shape: The planet is stretched into a lemon shape due to the strong gravity of its star.
* Atmosphere: The atmosphere is unusual. Rather of finding common gases like water vapor or methane, scientists detected helium and simple forms of carbon. The lack of oxygen and nitrogen is particularly noteworthy, as this combination isn’t seen on any other known planet.
* Temperature: The planet’s temperature varies wildly, from 1,200°F to 3,700°F.
Related Articles (linked in the text):
* Scientists suspect this scorched alien planet with a sunlike star has air: https://mashable.com/article/james-webb-space-telescope-exoplanet-sunlike-star-potential-atmosphere
* How long is a light-year: https://mashable.com/article/how-long-is-a-light-year
* How hot is the sun: https://mashable.com/article/how-hot-is-sun-nasa
* NASA pulsar cosmic hand nebula image: https://mashable.com/article/nasa-pulsar-cosmic-hand-nebula-image
