uranologist have discovered a Earth that ’s unlike anything we ’ve seen before , enwrap in a smothering atmosphere of carbon monoxide .

It ’s called WASP-18b , and it ’s turn up 325 light - years from Earth .   Its atmosphere being full of carbon monoxide hints   at a rather unusual composition and origin . A paper describing the planet is published in theAstrophysical Journal Letters .

" The composition of WASP-18b defies all arithmetic mean , " said Kyle Sheppard of NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland , the report ’s lead generator , in astatement .   " We do n’t know of any other extrasolar planet where carbon monoxide so completely master the upper air . "

The major planet , which is 10 time the quite a little of Jupiter , was take using NASA ’s Hubble and Spitzer blank telescope . It orbit its whiz in 23 hours at a distance of just 3.1 million kilometers ( 1.9 million miles ) , 50 times close than Earth orbits the Sun .

At this proximity , the satellite is known as ahot Jupiter , a class of jumbo planet that orbit extremely near to their host star . As such , they are potential to have scorchingly hot temperatures .

lighting from this planet ’s atmosphere showed something that had n’t been seen before . It hinted at an atmosphere with way too much carbon monoxide and very little water vaporisation .

" The only uniform explanation for the data is an superabundance of carbon monoxide and very short body of water vapor in the atmosphere of WASP-18b , in addition to the presence of a stratosphere , " said Nikku Madhusudhan , a co - writer of the study from the University of Cambridge , UK , in the assertion .   “ This rare combination of factor opens a new window into our savvy of physical and chemical substance processes in exoplanetary atmosphere . "

Observations indicate that there ’s hot carbon monoxide in the stratosphere , the outer layer of the atmosphere , and cooler carbon monoxide below in the troposphere .

The planet is also cerebrate to contain 300 times more leaden elements than other gas giants , suggesting it collected more substantial ices during its formation . This may hint at it originally shape further out in its planetary system before migrating inwards , something that ’s beentheorized beforeto explain how spicy Jupiters get so close to their stars .

At any rate , it hint at a eldritch and marvelous world . Who know what else we might find out there .