More than two decades ago, an enigmatic intermittent signal from “planet hell” has baffled the scientific community. This mysterious planet, officially known as 55 Cancri e but nicknamed “Janssen,” orbits a star called Copernicus, at a distance of just 41 light years from Earth. The conditions in this world are so extreme and hostile that it quickly earned its nickname of “planet hell”.
What makes 55 Cancri e truly intriguing is not its scorching temperatures, which reach 3,498 degrees Celsius at the surface, nor its landscape composed of lava and diamonds.
Instead, according to Nat Geowhat has attracted the attention of scientists is a signal of light that reaches Earth, which forms a small eclipse when the planet moves behind its star. However, this signal is not always constant; sometimes it disappears suddenly.
The theory to solve the enigma
Astrophysicist Kevin Heng has carried out a detailed study of this phenomenon to offer a possible explanation for the mysterious signal from the “hell planet”. Heng argues that 55 Cancri’s closeness to its star is causing its atmosphere to be steadily lost and replenished.
The intermittency of the signal and its variations in intensity, according to Heng, could be due to this instability in the atmosphere of 55 Cancri e. The extreme temperature to which the planet is subjected results in the expulsion of the very gases that compose it.
As a consequence of this interaction, atmospheric elements cannot be retained by the planet, temporarily leaving it without its gaseous mantle. Then, a geochemical degassing process begins to recover its atmosphere.
Importantly, Heng’s explanation remains a hypothesis. Confirmation of this theory rests on future observations, with the hope that the James Webb Space Telescope can provide more information by measuring the temperature and pressure in the planet’s atmosphere during these intermittent events.