Could you imagine living on a planet where it rains precious gems instead of water? Scientists have discovered new properties of a previously found exoplanet where clouds are made of metal and rain made of liquid gems. Sheesh!

The gas giant officially called “WASP-121b” orbits a star about 855 light-years from Earth, a study published in journal Nature Astronomy revealed. First spotted in 2015, the Jupiter-like planet is hotter and boasts a greater mass and diameter than the largest planet in our solar system. The more scientists learn about WASP-121b, the more absurd life on Earth feels.

NASA/ESA

What’s causing rains of precious gems?

WASP-121b has glowing water vapour atmosphere. That’s not the most uncanny part. It is constantly being deformed into a rugby ball shaped-planet owing to the intense gravitational pull of the star it orbits.

The exoplanet completes one orbit every 30 hours, in a Moon-like fashion. This implies that the planet’s one side is always facing the star while the other is always in darkness.

Also read: A Year Or 365 Days On This Exoplanet Lasts For Less Than 8 Hours

Owing to the temperature differences between both the sides, the dark side is cool enough to create metal clouds made from iron and corundum, CNN reported. The latter is found in gems like sapphires and rubies on Earth.

NASA/ESA

When these clouds are sent into the day side, they vaporise into gases. When this process happens, a rain of liquid gems takes place on the planet. Yep – a capitalist’s profiteering dreams are real on an exoplanet. Unfortunately, no human could survive on a gas giant, especially where clouds are made of metal.

Also read: NASA Discovers 301 Exoplanets In One Go With Help From Artificial Intelligence

The study was led by Thomas Mikal-Evans when he was a postdoctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

What do you think about this crazy planet? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

Strickland, A. C. (2022, February 21). Liquid gems may rain from the sky on this sizzling hot exoplanet. CNN.