"Research suggests the planet, L 98-59 d, would smell like rotten eggs and is covered in a mushy magma ocean. And it isn't just an outlier in its home solar system. So far it's the first exoplanet found to fit this peculiar description, and it seems to be defining a category of its own."
"Scientists first observed the planet in 2019, when the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite caught a glimpse of L 98-59 d passing in front of the red dwarf star at the center of its system. Afterward, observations from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes hinted at the planet's composition, but the more scientists learned, the less this newfound orb seemed to fit into existing categories for planets of its size."
"Neither rocky with a thick hydrogen atmosphere nor an ocean world, L 98-59 d might occupy a new class of molten, sulfurous exoplanet, according to a study in Nature Astronomy. It's pretty hellish, it's pretty alien, says Harrison Nicholls, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge."
"It's one thing to find an exoplanet and quite another to understand its surface conditions. Astronomers can gauge the size and mass of far-flung worlds by watching how light dims and wobbles as the planets cross in front of their home stars. They study planets'"
L 98-59 d orbits a red dwarf star far from Earth and shows signs of being covered by a mushy magma ocean. Research indicates the planet would smell like rotten eggs due to sulfur-rich conditions. Observations began in 2019 when a planet transit was detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Follow-up measurements using Hubble and James Webb suggested a composition that did not match existing categories for planets of similar size. The planet does not fit typical rocky worlds with thick hydrogen atmospheres or ocean worlds. Instead, it may represent a new class of molten, sulfurous exoplanets, and additional data could reveal more planets with similar properties.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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