# @themacrosift on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DZQeP7aySWF
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/66334573-themacrosift-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/6a1f5b5ca9.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-06-06T20:12:06.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** The Macro Sift | Exponential Tech (@themacrosift) — https://gondola.cc/themacrosift

## Caption

🔎 A New Type of Exoplanet?

Exoplanet L 98-59 d (what should we call it for short? Betty?) was first spotted orbiting a star trillions of miles away in 2019. In a recent study, scientists used computer models to pin down its makeup, and it turns out Betty may constitute a new class of planet. Its surface is a scalding 1,500 degrees Celsius. L 98-59 d is neither rocky nor an ocean world. It is likely covered in a mushy magma ocean and smells like rotten eggs from its sulfur-rich atmosphere. The planet is also about 5 billion years old—old enough for scientists to be surprised it hasn’t outgrown this sulfurous phase that typically afflicts planets when they go through a volcanic stage. So far, it’s the first exoplanet found to fit this peculiar description.

Why this matters: The first exoplanet was discovered a short 34 years ago, making the field of exoplanetary research still very new. Scientists are hopeful that identifying more categories of planets will help fill in the gaps in our knowledge of how planets form and evolve. In the study, researchers found that a disk of material with enough of the hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide required could create this type of planet around other stars—and that such planets might even be common.

What the experts say: “Really, the dream of an observer is to construct a classification scheme that then doesn’t just describe the universe; it tells you something new about [it],” says Thomas Beatty, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was not part of the study.
~Scientific American 

Representational image generated using ChatGPT

#Exoplanet #Space #NASA #JWST

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## Tags

nasa, space, exoplanet, jwst

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