Astronomers Find "Hell" Planet Melts Iron Directly

Illustration (Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Astronomers from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia recently discovered a new exoplanet with the hottest temperature in the universe. They even named it the "Hell" Planet.

Located 490 light-years from Earth, the exoplanet named TOI-1431b or also known as MASCARA-5b has the hottest temperature in the Milky Way galaxy. This is because the temperature on the planet's surface reaches 2,700 degrees Celsius, the warmest temperature ever measured in the universe so far.

"This is a world that is really like hell. During the day the temperature is around 2,700 degrees Celsius and at night approaches around 2,300 degrees Celsius," said Dr. Brett Addison, an astrophysicist at the University of Southern Queensland.

🔥 One of the hottest planets ever discovered 🔥@usqedu planet hunter @Astrobrett1 has found a ‘hellish’ new world with temps so high most metals would vaporise 🌡️📈

Details: https://t.co/dw08QbtTZL pic.twitter.com/TPyqWeKkyl

— University of Southern Queensland (@usqedu) April 27, 2021

Launching the ABC page, Dr. Brett Addison said that no life could survive in this atmosphere. When depicted, the temperature of the planet MASCARA-5b is significantly higher than the melting point of most metals, where most of it melts at temperatures below 2,000 degrees Celsius.

For comparison, titanium melts at 1,670 degrees Celsius, platinum at 1,770 degrees, and stainless steel between 1,375 to 1,530 degrees. So that means, these types of metals will not be able to last long on the planet MASCARA-5b.

"No life can survive in its atmosphere," explained Dr. Brett Addison, when describing the discovered planet.

In his explanation, this exoplanet is a giant gas planet that has no surface like the terrestrial planets in the Solar System. However, this exoplanet has not been able to match the temperature of the Sun which reaches 5,500 degrees Celsius.

The size of MASCARA-5b is about twice the size of the Planet Jupiter and its type is quite rare to find. He was first tracked by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) facility as well as observations at the Stellar Observation Network Group (SONG) telescope.

"I could see the radio speed orbits starting to get very clear, showing the stars wobbling. At that point, I knew, okay this must be a planet. This is a very large planet," Addison explained.