Last week, astronomers showed the presence of the heaviest element in existence, samarium, on Jupiter outside the solar system, which lies 556 light-years from Earth. And now another special element, the extremely rare terbium, has been discovered in the atmosphere of an equally special exoplanet.
The KELT-9 exoplanet, with an average temperature of 4,000 degrees Celsius, may be the hottest planet in the galaxy.
KELT-9, which orbits a star about 670 light-years from Earth, was discovered by astronomers in 2016. This discovery is made possible by a new method developed by researchers at Lund University in Sweden.
“We have developed a new method that allows us to obtain more detailed information than before. With this, we have discovered seven elements, including the rare terbium, which has never been found,” Nicholas Borsato, a doctoral student in astrophysics at Lund University, said in a statement. in the atmosphere of any exoplanet before.”
Terbium is a rare earth metal that belongs to the lanthanoid group of chemical elements. It is so rare that 99 percent of the world’s terbium production occurs in a single mining area, Bayan Obo, in Inner Mongolia. That’s why astronomers were shocked when they found this special element in the atmosphere of an exoplanet hundreds of light years from Earth.she says Interesting geometry.
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