"JWST observations of the ultra-hot super-Earth exoplanet TOI-561 b provide the strongest evidence to date for an atmosphere surrounding a rocky planet beyond our Solar System.
A team of astronomers led by Carnegie researchers has uncovered the clearest evidence so far that a rocky planet outside our Solar System possesses an atmosphere. The findings, reported in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, are based on observations from
The planet, called TOI-561 b, is roughly twice as massive as Earth but is otherwise very different from our planet. Its extreme conditions are driven by its tight orbit around its star. While the star itself is slightly smaller and cooler than the Sun, TOI-561 b circles it at just one fortieth the distance between Mercury and the Sun. Because of this close orbit, the planet completes a full year in only 10.56 hours, and one hemisphere is constantly exposed to starlight.
“Based on what we know about other systems, astronomers would have predicted that a planet like this is too small and hot to retain its own atmosphere for long after formation,” explained Carnegie Science Postdoctoral Fellow Nicole Wallack, the paper’s second author. “But our observations suggest it is surrounded by a relatively thick blanket of gas, upending conventional wisdom about ultra-short-period planets.”
Within our own Solar System, planets that are both small and intensely heated were unable to keep the original gaseous envelopes they acquired early in their histories.
*In contrast, TOI-561 b appears to have held on to its atmosphere even though it orbits a star that is much older than the Sun."
SciTechDaily
OBSERVATIONS:
1- TOI-561 b is obviously NOT older than it's sun....2- Apparently it's formation isn't the age they think....
