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Webb observes exoplanet that may have an exotic helium and carbon atmosphere (science.nasa.gov)
submitted 10 months ago by [B] to c/hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
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[–] 1 point 10 months ago (4 children)

by carbon, do they mean elemental carbon or organic compounds?

because the latter makes sense as an atmosphere. but how can elemental carbon be gaseous?

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  • [+] 1 point 10 months ago (3 children)
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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    follow up question. light gasses tend to abandon the atmosphere first,. unless it's a cold planet or it hasna strong gravity. wouldn't the conditions for helium to remain in the atmosphere be mutually exclusive with those extreme conditions to have carbon in the atmosphere?

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  • [+] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)
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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I'm not going to look at the temperatures and escape velocities of gasses. just that helium atmosphere and carbon atmosphere are on the polar opposite of atmospheres. maybe there's something exotic going on (not magic), like a cold (ish, it's a heavy planet, I mean not extrememly hot) helium atmosphere with a ring of carbon dust affecting the spectrometry.

    I'm not doubting the discovery. I'm assuming it's spectrography and it is true, it's just crazy how insane the universe is. whenever I assume nothing new will surprise me, we find out something new.

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