Carbon Giant by a Dead Star ⚡ экспресс
Astronomers used JWST to observe PSR J2322-2650b, a Jupiter-mass object orbiting a pulsar. Its atmosphere, unlike planets around normal stars, is dominated by carbon molecules C2 and C3 under strong western winds. The carbon-to-oxygen (>100) and carbon-to-nitrogen (>10,000) ratios are extreme: the material resembles soot more than a gas mixture. This challenges "black widow" models, where companions were thought to be remnants of stellar cores with diverse compositions.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers peered at the pulsar PSR J2322-2650b — the superdense core of an exploded star. Orbiting it is a gas giant the size of Jupiter, heated to a glow of molten steel. This pair has been dubbed the 'black widow': the dead star siphons material from its companion.
The planet's spectrum delivered a shock: instead of water vapor, the atmosphere turned out to be soot — chains of two and three carbon atoms. Carbon is a hundred times more abundant than oxygen compared to normal, and ten thousand times more than nitrogen. Such carbon riches don't fit the 'black widow' model, where the companion should be a molten metallic core. Apparently, world-building around dead stars is far more mysterious than we thought.
🎯 Planet PSR J2322-2650b completes a full orbit around the pulsar in 3.3 hours — faster than any human-made satellite in low Earth orbit.