A team of U.S. astronomers has found that the exoplanet WASP-12b has a ratio carbon / oxygen much higher than that of the planets of the Solar System. The finding, published today in Nature, was made possible after analyzing the planet’s hot atmosphere, which also seems to have a structure very different thermal models predict.
WASP-12b is a giant gas planet that orbits a star like the Sun, about 1,200 light years away, and has just become the first “world” rich in carbon that obsrva.
The implications are great for the chemistry of the planet, because, in the absence of oxygen in abundance, common rocks around the planet would be made of pure carbon, in forms such as diamond or graphite.
“In most of the planets, oxygen is abundant. This gives rise to stones like quartz, and gases such as carbon dioxide, “says Professor Joseph Harrington, University of Central Florida (UCF, USA), one of the study investigators. “With more carbon than oxygen, carbon rocks obtained pure as a diamond or graphite, and large amounts of methane gas.”
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Urge soon begin large-scale research and testing various internationally coordinated field on the possibility of spreading particles in the planet’s atmosphere act as “canopy” to mitigate future impacts of climate change. They warn about Scientists at the University of Calgary, Canada, and universities Americans.
Cooperative Research and funded by governments on the control of solar radiation, a form of geoengineering, would reduce the risk of unilateral experiments by nations and help identify the lower-risk technologies. This is what supporting David Keith, University of Calgary, Edward Parson University of Michigan and Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon.
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