Astronomers have discovered a new exoplanet, which actually drops molten iron.

Scientists found a new special planet in another star system, but the weather in this place is very bad, because there is molten iron rain on WASP-76b every day, and the probability of molten iron rain is 100%.

Researchers said on Wednesday that they used the ESPRESSO instrument to search for planets on the very large telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile and observed a planet called WASP-76b, which is about 640 light years away from the Earth. It is almost twice the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.

Planets found outside our solar system are called exoplanets, and WASP-76b is one of the most extreme planets in climate and surface chemistry. It is an overheated exoplanet discovered in recent years.

It is very close to its home star, which is almost twice the size of the sun. The orbit of WASP-76b is only three times the radius of the star, which means that the planet is much closer to the orbit of Mercury, the innermost planet in the solar system. The same side of WASP-76b always faces the star, just as the same side of our moon always faces the earth.

The heat received by WASP-76b is 4000 times that of the solar radiation received by the earth from the sun, and the surface temperature of WASP-76b can reach 2400 degrees Celsius. This persistent and long-term thermal attack makes the metal evaporate on the planet. The vaporized metal will follow the strong wind to the other side of the planet, and then the vaporized metal will condense into liquid iron drops and fall there.

Allen Reich, an astronomer at the University of Geneva, is the main author of this study. He published an article in the journal Nature, saying that molten iron rain may be the unique feature of these overheated exoplanets.

WASP-76b illustrates the strange properties of some exoplanets and shows that we still have a lot to learn about alien planetary systems. Ehrenreich said: "We have encountered extreme atmospheric conditions of many super-hot gas planets, which are not found in our solar system and are difficult to replicate in the laboratory. Therefore, these strange celestial bodies are a unique laboratory. "