Nasa Finding Rich Carbon Planet WASP-12b

NASA Spitzer Space Telescope found a gaseous planet called WASP-12b is orbiting a star. This discovery is very significant for researchers because of WASP-12b is a planet rich in carbon content. Carbon-rich planets would be exotic in every way, whether the establishment, interior, and atmosphere. Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Los Angeles, Wednesday (8 / 12), explained that the possibility of WASP-12b containing graphite, diamond, or even more exotic form of carbon on the inside of the bottom layer of gas.
“This planet is revealed remarkable diversity of the world out there,” said Madhusudhan Nikku from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, lead author of the report in the December 9 edition of the journal Nature.
Astronomers do not currently have the technology to observe the core of exoplanets, or planets orbiting stars beyond our sun. But, in theory, they suggest this possibility will be interesting. The study also supports the theory that carbon-rich rocky planets that could be around other stars.
Earth rocks such as quartz we have made of silicon and oxygen plus other elements. A carbon-rich rocky planets that could become a very different place.
“A carbon-dominated world of rock can have a lot of pure carbon, like diamond or graphite and carbon compounds such as tar,” said Joseph Harrington of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, principal investigator in the study.
Carbon is a common component of planetary systems and the main ingredient of life on Earth. Astronomers often measure the ratio of carbon to oxygen to obtain the chemical ingredients of a star.
Our sun has a carbon-oxygen ratio of about 1 to 2. This means half of the amount of carbon is the oxygen. None of the planets in our solar system known to have more carbon than oxygen, or the ratio of one or more. However, this ratio is not known to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Unlike the WASP-12b, the planets are saving a lot of water as the main oxygen-carrying them away in the atmosphere, making it difficult to detect.
WASP-12b is the first planet that has a carbon-oxygen ratio of more than one (most likely the actual ratio between one and two). This means the planet is to have excess carbon. Some of them in the form of methane in the atmosphere.