Was Mercury once a hot Jupiter?

Either way, the Mercury we know is thought to be a fraction of the planet we ought to have had. Mercury remains unique for another reason as well: Many of the extrasolar planets we’ve detected have been so-called “Hot Jupiters,” gas giants with extremely close orbits to their parent stars.

Why were hot Jupiters the first extrasolar planets to be found?

Hot Jupiters are the easiest extrasolar planets to detect via the radial-velocity method, because the oscillations they induce in their parent stars’ motion are relatively large and rapid compared to those of other known types of planets.

Can gas planets evaporate?

For the first time, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have observed the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet evaporating off into space. Much of the planet may eventually disappear, leaving only a dense core. Earth also has an extended atmosphere of escaping hydrogen gas, but the loss rate is much lower.

Which of the following is the main reason why the planet Mercury experiences such extreme temperatures?

Mercury’s low mass and proximity to the sun keep it from having anything but the thinnest of atmospheres, and this is the reason it must pass on being the hottest planet. An atmosphere helps to cloak a planet, keeping heat from leaking into space.

How common are hot Jupiters?

Hot Jupiters are giant planets that orbit very close to their host star, typically less than one-tenth the distance between Earth and the Sun. They are found in about 1 percent of systems. Since their initial discovery in the 1990s, astronomers have wondered how these strange planets got to where they are today.

How do astronomers know Jupiter is hot inside?

How do astronomers know Jupiter is hot inside? Jupiter is glowing in the infrared and emitting 1.7 times as much energy as it receives from the Sun.

How hot are hot Jupiters?

They seem to group into three families, the science team found: the “cooler” hot Jupiters, with atmospheric temperatures up to about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius), “hot” hot Jupiters, from about 1,300 to 3,100 degrees Fahrenheit (700 to 1,700 degrees Celsius), and ultra-hot Jupiters, those above 3,100 …

Which is the only planet that rotates on its side?

Uranus
This unique tilt makes Uranus appear to spin on its side, orbiting the Sun like a rolling ball. The first planet found with the aid of a telescope, Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought it was either a comet or a star.

Does it rain on Mercury?

Since Mercury has hardly any atmosphere, it does not have weather like storms, clouds, winds or rain.

How many hot Jupiters have been discovered?

400 hot Jupiters
Among the more confounding planets discovered to date are “hot Jupiters” — massive balls of gas that are about the size of our own Jovian planet but that zing around their stars in less than 10 days, in contrast to Jupiter’s plodding, 12-year orbit. Scientists have discovered about 400 hot Jupiters to date.

What happens if the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter is removed?

If the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter is stripped away via hydrodynamic escape, its core may become a chthonian planet. The amount of gas removed from the outermost layers depends on the planet’s size, the gases forming the envelope, the orbital distance from the star, and the star’s luminosity.

How long does it take mercury to orbit the Sun?

Kepler’s Third Law implies that the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases rapidly with the radius of its orbit. Thus we find that Mercury, the innermost planet, takes only 88 days to orbit the Sun.

Why do hot Jupiters have such large envelopes?

The large radii of hot Jupiters are not yet fully understood but it is thought that the expanded envelopes can be attributed to high stellar irradiation, high atmospheric opacities, possible internal energy sources, and orbits close enough to their stars for the outer layers of the planets to exceed their Roche limit and be pulled further outward.

Why can’t we see mercury from Earth?

Because Mercury is so close to the Sun, it is hard to directly observe from Earth except during dawn or twilight when the Sun’s brightness doesn’t outshine little Mercury. However, 13 times each century, observers on Earth can watch Mercury pass across the face of the Sun, an event called a transit.