Carbon Giant by a Dead Star ⚡ экспресс
Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope studied a strange object the size of Jupiter but orbiting a dead star. It turned out that its atmosphere is filled with carbon molecules, like soot, rather than familiar gases. This discovery turns our ideas about what planets can be made of upside down. What other unexpected worlds does the cosmos hide?
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.