Space boffins sniff out big foul-smelling planet that reeks of ‘rotten eggs’
NASA’s James Webb Telescope has found a 1,500°C hellscape planet 34 light-years away that reeks of rotten eggs due to a toxic, sulfur-filled ocean of molten magma
Scientists have identified a previously unknown type of planet with a pungent smell(Image: Mark A. Garlick / markgarlick.com/Cover Images)
Space scientists have sniffed out a real stinker of a world lurking 34 light-years away from Earth.
The newly identified planet, L 98-59 d, has been branded one of the foulest-smelling places in the cosmos, boasting a rank aroma that would put the world’s worst rotten egg farts to shame.
The planet is a literal boiling hellscape, featuring a permanent ocean of liquid lava and a thick blanket of toxic, scorching air.
Orbiting a red dwarf star at a breakneck distance, the planet’s surface temperature is estimated to rocket past 1,500°C. But it’s the presence of hydrogen sulfide that gives this world its legendary stinky status.
Dr. Richard Chatterjee, from the University of Leeds and University of Oxford, said: “Hydrogen sulphide gas, responsible for the smell of rotten eggs, appears to play a starring role there.
“But, as always, more observations are needed to understand this planet and others like it.
“Further investigation may yet show that rather pungent planets are surprisingly common.”
Experts have classified L 98-59 d as a brand-new type of planet outside our solar system, defined by its massive stores of sulfur hidden deep within a never-ending magma ocean. Unlike Earth, this world doesn’t have a solid “skin.”
Harrison Nicholls, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge Institute of Astronomy and lead author of the research, said: “The planet lacks distinct structure within its magma ocean, so there is no crust, upper mantle and lower mantle. The magma ocean is a single deep, mushy layer.”
While the planet was first spotted in 2019, it took the power of the James Webb Space Telescope and ground-based technology to reveal its bizarre, low-density nature.
The concentration of the gas is so high that it would be impossible to ignore if you could stay alive long enough to breathe it in.
Planetary scientist and study co-author Raymond Pierrehumbert said: “Your nose can smell hydrogen sulfide at concentrations of something like one part per billion, so this would be overwhelmingly stinky.
“But you wouldn’t survive long enough in this hot atmosphere to notice.”
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