Hot Jupiters aren’t known for their hospitality, what with the heat, the poisonous air, and the possibility of flesh-melting “metal rain.” But the hottest and least hospitable of all is KELT-9b.
News of this strange world comes out of the 230th American Astronomical Society meeting underway this week in Austin, Texas. Scott Gaudi (Ohio State University) and colleagues also outlined the discovery in a recent issue of the journal Nature.
With almost triple Jupiter’s mass, KELT-9b orbits a massive A-type star more than twice the mass of our Sun every 18 hours. A planet this close in is probably tidally locked, keeping one hemisphere perpetually turned toward its host star.
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