Fans love when science fiction borders on reality, at least on this kind of aspect. Scientists have discovered a planet very similar to Mustafar from ‘Star Wars’, it is not just any planet, one of the most important of the entire saga.
Astronomers discovered an exoplanet with extreme conditions just outside our Solar System, with oceans of lava and an atmosphere made up of rocks. Similar in size to Earth, scientists named it K2-141b and is approximately 200 light-years from our planet.
In ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’ there is a planet where Anakin loses the battle against his teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi and incidentally loses his limbs in one of the best duels with lightsabers of the entire saga. It is also where Darth Vader lives during the events of ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ and in fact tries to resurrect Padmé with a relic called Brightstar, but is unsuccessful. However the planet begins to change drastically, which we see in ‘The Rise of the Skywalker’.
The research published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society explains that the exoplanet was discovered in 2018 by the mission Kepler. After months of study, astronomers were able to identify particular features of K2-141b which contained extreme weather.
In turn, K2-141b belongs to a subset of planets that orbit close to its star, and its proximity to it keeps it gravitationally locked, so it always faces the same side. Through simulations they were able to detect that its atmosphere will change over time.
“The study is the first to make predictions about weather conditions on K2-141b that can be detected from hundreds of light years away with next-generation telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope,” says research author Giang Nguyen to CBS news.
The team of scientists discovered that two-thirds of the exoplanet is exposed to daylight, rather than a hemisphere that lights up like on Earth. During the night, K2-141b experiences freezing temperatures below -200 degrees Celsius, but the opposite is true during the day.
During the daytime period, this exoplanet can register up to three thousand degrees, a temperature sufficient enough to vaporize rocks and create a thin atmosphere in certain areas. The process is similar to that on Earth, as mineral vapor is sent to the night side by supersonic winds.
“All rocky planets, including Earth, started off as molten worlds but then rapidly cooled and solidified. Lava planets give us a rare glimpse at this stage of planetary evolution,” Cowan explained.
It is certainly an even less habitable place than Mustafar. Therefore, forget about spending a weekend there trying to reenact the Anakin vs Obi-wan battle with your friends. Obi-wan would take the high ground anyways.
