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This distant and deadly planet smells like rotten eggs, scientists say
As if its deadly weather wasn’t bad enough, scientists this week said a Jupiter-sized planet 64 light-years from Earth reeks of rotten eggs.
HD 189733 b is an exoplanet, which means it’s located outside of our solar system. The atmosphere has clouds “laced with glass”, and that glass pours down as rain, according to NASA. In a study published Monday in the journal Nature, researchers said the atmosphere also has trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide, causing the smell.
Dangerous wind, temperature and rain on “hot Jupiter”
HD 189733 b is what is known as a hot Jupiter planet, which are gas giants with extremely high temperatures. They closely orbit their stars, which make them “infernally hot,” according to NASA.
It takes just 2.2 days for HD 189733 b to orbit its star and, because of its proximity to its star, it has a surface temperature of 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists said. For comparison, it takes Jupiter — the one in our solar system — about 12 Earth years to orbit the sun.
NASA refers to HD 189733 b as a “nightmare world” and a “killer you never see coming.”
“To the human eye, this far-off planet looks bright blue. But any space traveler confusing it with the friendly skies of Earth would be badly mistaken,” the space agency wrote in a 2016 post. “The weather on this world is deadly.”
Winds blow up to 5,400 miles an hour. That howling wind blows about the dangerous glass rain, with NASA writing that “getting caught in the rain on this planet is more than an inconvenience; it’s death by a thousand cuts.”
Studying HD 189733 b
The James Webb Space Telescope has been used to study the deadly exoplanet, which was discovered in 2005. Researchers say the new stinky atmosphere discovery gives scientists new clues about how sulfur could influence both the insides and the atmospheres of gas worlds outside of Earth’s solar system.
“We’re not looking for life on this planet because it’s way too hot, but finding hydrogen sulfide is a stepping stone for finding this molecule on other planets and gaining more understanding of how different types of planets form,” Guangwei Fu, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University who led the research, said in a statement.
Studying the sulfur can help scientists understand more about how planets are made and what they’re made of, Fu said. Going forward, Fu and his research team intend to track sulfur in other exoplanets.
“We want to know how these kinds of planets got there, and understanding their atmospheric composition will help us answer that question,” Fu said.
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Paul Whelan, freed in prisoner swap with Russia, tells other American detainees: “We’re coming for you”
Washington — Nearly seven weeks after the Russians handed over Paul Whelan on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, the Marine veteran stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a message for other Americans who are held abroad.
“We’re coming for you,” he told reporters Tuesday night after he met with lawmakers. “It might take time, but we’re coming.”
Whelan said he spoke with lawmakers about how the government can better support detainees after they’re released.
“We spoke about how the next person’s experience could be better,” he said. “What the government could do for the next person that’s held hostage and comes home — the care and support that other people might need, especially people that are in a worse situation. There are people coming back that lived in the dirt without shoes for three years, people that were locked up in hideous conditions for 20 years. They need support.”
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The U.S. secured Whelan’s release in August in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal came after months of sensitive negotiations between the U.S., Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
As part of the deal, Russia released 16 prisoners while the Western countries released eight Russians. Whelan was released alongside Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. green card holder and Kremlin critic.
Whelan, who had been the longest-held American detainee in Russia, was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to the country to attend a friend’s wedding. He was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, his family and the U.S. government vehemently denied that he was a spy and accused Russia of using him as a political pawn. The U.S. government considered him to be wrongfully detained, a rare designation that put more government resources toward securing his release.
But a deal to secure his freedom was long elusive. He remained behind bars as Russia freed Marine veteran Trevor Reed and women’s basketball star Brittney Griner — both of whom were detained after Whelan’s arrest — in prisoner swaps with the U.S.
The U.S. said it pushed for his inclusion in both exchanges, but Russia refused. It led to Whelan advocating for his own release from a remote prison camp, calling government officials and journalists to make sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
When the plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovish and Kurmasheva landed in Maryland on Aug. 1, Whelan was the first to disembark. He was greeted by President Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag pin, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he likes it or not, he changed the world,” Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Whelan’s case and his family’s constant pressure on the U.S. government brought more attention to the cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
Haley said Whelan is a reminder to other Americans considering traveling to Russia that “you have a target on your back.”
Whelan said it’s been an adjustment acclimating to life back in the U.S., especially learning the latest technology like his iPhone 15.
“I was in a really remote part of Russia,” he said. “We really didn’t have much. The conditions were poor. The Russians said the poor conditions were part of the punishment. And coming back to see this sort of thing now is a bit of a shock, but it’s a good shock.”