Rain is a typical occurrence in WASP-76b, an exoplanet 640 light-years away from the Pisces constellation. Except it’s not the kind of rain you’re probably expecting…
This bizarre planet experiences such extreme temperatures that it actually RAINS iron. This planet is so hot, all of the iron on its surface evaporates during the day, condenses, and falls down as rain at night!
This planet is tidally-locked which means it only shows one face to its parent star. Half of it is in eternal daytime and the other is in eternal nighttime. That means one side of the planet experiences extreme burning temperatures and the other is stuck in a rainstorm — forever.
Astronomers discovered this strange planet using a planet-hunter nicknamed ESPRESSO. It was initially to be used only to identify these exoplanets but it turns out that it can actually be used to analyze them, too!
Scientists have taken this as a chance to learn more about the climates of the most extreme planets. Who knows what mind-blowing discovery will they make next?
