Hello folks

Ive learned recently that the star Tau Bootis is orbited by a planet 4 times the size of jupiter. this planet orbits its star in 3 day 7 hours and was suggested its clouds were made of vaporized rock.

Im not all that keyd up on planetary science but Im generally curious about such a planet. I assume its a rocky planet, is there any solid surface? maybe with a big magnetic field?
But anyway but im interested to know what it would look like. a glowing red orb or might it have bands of 'cloud'. or what?

Thanks

Gav

Welcome to the board Gavin

For now, I have two links for your about Tau Bootis. I will return to this topic later when I get back home from the gym (gotta run now).

Universe Today

&

Extrasolar Visions - tau Bootis b

Though these links may not directly answer you question, they do contain information that will help you in your artwork.

*I'll be back*

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Fahad Sulehria,
Astronomical Artist,
Administrator of Nova Celestia.

Hi Gavin,

I'll make the post on Solar Voyager instead. Unfortunately, noone else has posted to help you.

__________________
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Fahad Sulehria,
Astronomical Artist,
Administrator of Nova Celestia.

The Extrasolar Visions image and writeup is probably very accurate; hot reddish clouds of silicate vapour. The only question mark is how big the rocky core is. If it is very large, like that inside the newly discovered HD 149026 b, it would be considerably more compact, but the atmosphere would still be far too thick for the surface to be visible.

Large rocky planets (like the newly discovered HD 149026 b) have such high gravity values (10 gees at the surface of the rocky core or more) that they cannot lose all their atmosphere even if they are as close to their star as Tau Bootis b.

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense- Novella Contest Issue! . OA Flickr set

thanks for the input.

but it all raises moe questions. I shall trawl the web for more info

anyone know if there is likely to be electrical storms on a planet like that,
and might there be some pretty spectacular Aurorae?

G.

Hi Gavin,

I certainly believe there could be spectacular aurorae on the planet, which is both (very) close to its' star, and I also believe the star is more active than our sun, because it is hotter and more massive.

__________________
.
Fahad Sulehria,
Astronomical Artist,
Administrator of Nova Celestia.