back to article Horror in space: Hot alien giant boiled alive by nasty radiation-belching star

Astronomers have discovered KELT‑9b – the hottest giant exoplanet yet seen. It is twice the size of Jupiter, has a dayside temperature of 4,600 Kelvin, and is being stripped by ultraviolet radiation from its star, KELT‑9. Thousands of exoplanets – alien worlds beyond our own solar system – have been spotted in the depths of …

  1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Boffin

    Temperature seems off

    The sun has a surface temperature of around 5,800 K, so 10,170 K (which is near the upper end of the typical range of an A-type stars) seems a tad much for KELT-9b. Maybe 10,170 refers to KELT-9 itself. If KELT-9b is 1,200 K below the temperature of the sun, it should be about 4,600 K, as hot as a typical K-class star. Blistering indeed

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: Temperature seems off

      From the article :

      "KELT‑9's surface is estimated to be a whopping 10,170 Kelvin"

      The article specifically designates the star, not the planet, as having a 10K surface temperature.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. frank ly

    That picture

    The planet is a spheroid, the star is an ellipsoid. Why is that?

    1. Anonymous Blowhard

      Re: That picture

      "The planet is a spheroid, the star is an ellipsoid. Why is that?"

      It's not an egg-sacked science...

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: That picture

        Probably Aliens.

        (These exoplanet dispatches increasingly read like something from Frederick Pohl's "Gateway". No Heechees though)

    2. druck Silver badge

      Re: That picture

      The star is supposed to be spinning very rapidly, so would appear as a flattened ellipsoid. You would expect the planet to be orbiting in the celestial plane, so the star would be rotated 90 degrees to that shown, with the budge at the equator.

  3. Harry the Bastard

    what's the uv index?

    el reg unit opportunity here, may i propose the 'beach'

    defined as the inverse of the number of seconds one can sunbathe on kelt-9b before reddening of the skin occurs

    1. caffeine addict

      Re: what's the uv index?

      I read the entire article thinking that read "Ultra violet radiation" and was going to suggest the "tanning bed" as a unit.

      Sticking with light as radiation though, would calling the unit the "video-nasty" date me horribly?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: what's the uv index?

      Perhaps instead the factor of suncream required to prevent sunburn.

      Obviously this number will require funny numbers with E's in it, so perhaps not ideal.

  4. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Perhaps it's a baby star not a planet?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not possible

      It's not nearly massive enough. For the lightest star, about 13 times the mass of Jupiter is required, which would yield a brown dwarf. This exoplanet only has 2.8 Jupiter masses.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Units!

    > only 1,200 Kelvin (1,093°C or 2,000°F) cooler than the Sun

    Surely we are talking about the difference in temperatures here and the difference in temperature in K and the difference in C should be the same, so why are they different in this example?

  6. drand

    A day at the beach for The Great Old Ones

    Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

    1. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

      Re: A day at the beach for The Great Old Ones

      I hope they have their sunblock:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCTSCAQzY9k

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: A day at the beach for The Great Old Ones

        Waiter! This Shoggoth-Martini has no ice cubes!!

  7. Tom 7

    Dims by a bit every 1.5 days

    Which could be a wave travelling around a star that size. Hope its a planet mind.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hot alien

    Rule 34.

  9. Steve the Cynic

    But what is "KELT" in the name? Read on...

    Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope.

    That's gotta win some sort of prize.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilodegree_Extremely_Little_Telescope

  10. Sysgod

    better writing needed...

    A lot of the comments point out problems with the article. Here's another: the shield effect of the planet is totally disregarded in the author's efforts to disparage it's chances at anything.

    It's got a nice dark side that's cool with advanced aliens creating all sorts of cool tech from their unique environment.

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