A planet close to us with a day that lasts forever and an eternal night ignited by the eruption of volcanoes

We know very little about exoplanets. Despite thousands confirmed by astronomers there, little is known if they have atmospheres, water or anything else that can make them habitable.

We only sometimes know how big they are and even how far they orbit their host star.

So the claim that a planet was found around a star that has volcanoes that illuminate its night sky is a big one. So far, researchers have found no evidence of global tectonic activity on planets outside our solar system.

The innovative paper, published this week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, looks at an exoplanet called LHS 3844b, which orbits a red dwarf star – the most common type of star in the Milky Way – about 49 light-years away in the constellation Indus.

What do we know about this volcanic planet

Here’s everything you need to know about LHS 3844b:

• It is a “super-Earth”, but only just – the radius is 1.3 times larger than our planet and has a mass of 2.25 times.
• A year on LHS 3844b lasts only 11 hours – so fast it takes to orbit its star.
• Day and night on the LHS 3844b lasts forever. This is because LHS 3844b is neatly blocked by its star, showing it a side – just like the Moon does with the Earth.
• It is an empty, rocky basalt planet that makes it fade – much like Mercury and Darkness. mares per month.
• It probably does not have an atmosphere, so it is not habitable and, in any case, it is 1,410ºF / 770ºC on the day and -418 ° F / -250 ° C on the night.
• Its host star is a red dwarf star that is about one-fifth the size of our Sun.
• Its discovery was announced in September 2018 using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

What is so bizarre about LHS 3844b

Its surface can be mostly covered in dark lava rock, according to 2019 observations by NASA’s Spitzer space telescope. He also discovered that very little heat moves from the star-gazing part of the planet to the space-facing night. This indicates a lack of wind and weather – and therefore a lack of atmosphere.

Now scientists at the University of Bern and the National Research Competence Center NCCR PlanetS in Switzerland have discovered that the material inside the LHS 3844b flows from one hemisphere to another. It could be responsible for numerous volcanic eruptions on one side of the planet.

How tectonic activity works on LHS 3844b

“Observing the signs of tectonic activity is very difficult because they are usually hidden under an atmosphere,” said Tobias Meier at the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern. “I thought its severe temperature contrast could affect the flow of materials inside the planet.”

To test this theory, the team performed computer simulations with various material forces and internal heat sources – such as heat from the core of the planet and the decay of radioactive elements.

“Based on what we are used to on Earth, you would expect hot day material to be lighter and therefore flow upside down and vice versa,” said co-author Dan Bower of the University of Bern. and NCCR PlanetS. However, some simulations showed the opposite direction of flow. “This initial counter-intuitive result is due to the change in viscosity with temperature – the cold material is stiffer and therefore does not want to bend, break or fall inside,” Bower said. “The warm material is less viscous – so even solid rock becomes more mobile when heated – and can flow easily into the planet.”

It seems clear that LHS 3844b works in a very different way from Earth, where plate tectonics brings the material from inside the planet to the surface and atmosphere and then transports it back under the Earth’s crust – and in this sense helps the Earth to be habitable.

Volcanoes illuminate the night on LHS 3844b

The strange flow of material inside the LHS 3844b has bizarre consequences. “On any part of the planet the material flows upwards, we would expect a large amount of volcanism on that particular side,” Bower said. “Similar deep-earth flows cause volcanic activity in Hawaii and Iceland”

The bottom line is that LHS 3844b probably has a hemisphere peppered with volcanoes and one with almost none.

What follows for LHS 3844b

These conclusions are drawn from computer simulations, so more detailed observations of LHS 3844b are needed – such as a map with a higher surface temperature resolution that could reveal volcanic degassing.

How long would it take to reach LHS 3844b

There is no good news here / Although 49 light-years firmly places it in our cosmic court, the LHS 3844b is far too far to reach.

If you travel at the speed of light, it would take 49 years. Go down a notch to the fastest moving spacecraft in space, New Horizons – moving at about 33,000 mph / 53,100 – and it would take 987,026 years to reach LHS 3844b.

I wish you clear skies and big eyes.