With A Temperature Of 3,200¡ãC, WASP-189b Is The 'Most Extreme Planet Ever Seen' Confirm Scientists

A European Space Agency satellite tasked with tracking down exoplanets has made its first big catch: a world so hot that its atmosphere could melt iron, astrophysicists have reported.

Some 322 light years away in the constellation Libra, WASP-189b is so close to its host star that it orbits in less than three days. "This object is one of the most extreme planets we know so far," said lead author Monika Lendl, a scientist at the University of Geneva, describing it as "very exotic."

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Exoplanets -- any planet outside our solar system -- were first confirmed to exist in 1995 by two Swiss astronomers, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, an exploit that earned them a physics Nobel last year.

When a planet passes between its star and an observer -- whether an astronomer on land or a telescope in space -- it dims the star's light by a tiny but measurable amount.

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This "transit" method has detected the vast majority of exoplanets discovered so far. NASA's Kepler spacecraft used it to find thousands of candidates from 2009 to 2013.

"We estimate the temperature of WASP-189b to be 3,200 degrees Celsius (5,800 degrees Fahrenheit)," Lendl explained.

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WASP-189b is unusual in that it does not reflect a lot of starlight. WASP-189b's star is bigger than the Sun, and about 2,000 degrees Celsius hotter, the researchers reported. Because it is so hot, the star appears blue and not yellow-white like the Sun.

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The CHEOPS space-based telescope spotted the gas giant circling close to one of the hottest known stars with a planetary system and it was launched into the Earth's orbit last December.

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There are 4,284 confirmed exoplanets as of September 29, according to the NASA Exoplanet Archive, and at least as many likely candidates. Several studies estimate there could be a trillion exoplanets in our galaxy alone. Indeed, there may be as many or more exoplanets in the universe as there are stars.

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