Exo-Planet Hotter Than Some Stars

The hottest planet ever discovered is charcoal black and makes even some stars seem cool. Scientists think the exoplanet absorbs nearly all the starlight that reaches its surface and then re-radiates it back out into space as heat.

Called HD 149026b, the feverish world emits so much infrared heat that it glows slightly. "It would look like an ember in space, absorbing all incoming light but glowing a dull red," said study leader Joseph Harrington of the University of Central Florida.

Located 279 light-years away in the constellation Hercules, HD 149026b is a so-called hot Jupiter, a giant gas planet that orbits very close to its star. It is a scorching 3,700 degrees Fahrenheit (2,040 degrees Celsius), three times hotter than Mercury and hotter than the coolest stars.


SOURCE:
Space.com

An intriguing discovery to say the least, it just adds another exotic mystery to a planet that
was already an oddball to begin with.

This planet would be very interesting to study, and is potentially one of the top hundred
planets we end up exploring in the beginning.


Comments, Opinions?

[edit on 5/9/2007 by iori_komei]

Fantastic iori_komei for bringing it up !

i am to some extent familiar with Pegasi system stars - and they are quite something.

Imagine metallically and density of this planet, almost all made of hard heavy core - more than 2/3 ?

If there would exist some silica based life - in atmosphere would find and breathe tiatnium - being there in gaseous state. Scientist expect that hydrogen is compressed to liquid metal.

They also presume - that is tidally locked to star- parent, and revolving very quickly (2.3 Earth days ) but has a long. long day (2 219 Earth days)/

Dark, almost black - looks like a hot chuck coal in that cold space.