page_title: Gliese 436 b
section_title: Physical characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Gliese 436 b / Physical characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: PIA19345: How to Make a Helium Atmosphere http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19345 NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed a proposed helium planet, GJ 436b. This diagram illustrates how hypothetical helium atmospheres might form. These would be on planets about the mass of Neptune, or smaller, which orbit tightly to their stars, whipping around in just days. They are thought to have cores of water or rock, surrounded by thick atmospheres of gas. Radiation from their nearby stars would boil off hydrogen and helium, but because hydrogen is lighter, more hydrogen would escape. It's also possible that planetary bodies, such as asteroids, could impact the planet, sending hydrogen out into space. Over time, the atmospheres would become enriched in helium. With less hydrogen in the planets' atmospheres, the concentration of methane and water would go down. Both water and methane consist in part of hydrogen. Eventually, billions of years later (a "Gyr" equals one billion years), the abundances of the water and methane would be greatly reduced. Since hydrogen would not be abundant, the carbon would be forced to pair with oxygen, forming carbon monoxide. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed a proposed helium planet, GJ 436b, with these traits: it lacks methane, and appears to contain carbon monoxide. Future observations are needed to detect helium itself in the atmospheres of these planets, and confirm this theory. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer.
context_page_description: Gliese 436 b is a Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 436. It was the first hot Neptune discovered with certainty and was among the smallest-known transiting planets in mass and radius, until the much smaller Kepler exoplanet discoveries began circa 2010.
  In December 2013, NASA reported that clouds may have been detected in the atmosphere of GJ 436 b.
context_section_description: The planet's surface temperature is estimated from measurements taken as it passes behind the star to be 712 K (439 °C; 822 °F). This temperature is significantly higher than would be expected if the planet were only heated by radiation from its star, which was prior to this measurement, estimated at 520 K. Whatever energy tidal effects deliver to the planet, it does not affect its temperature significantly. A greenhouse effect could raise the temperature to much higher degrees than the predicted 520–620 K.
  In 2019, USA Today reported that the exoplanet's burning ice continued to have scientists "flabbergasted." Its main constituent was initially predicted to be hot "ice" in various exotic high-pressure forms, which would remain solid despite the high temperatures, because of the planet's gravity. The planet could have formed further from its current position, as a gas giant, and migrated inwards with the other gas giants. As it arrived in range, the star would have blown off the planet's hydrogen layer via coronal mass ejection. 
  However, when the radius became better known, ice alone was not enough to account for it. An outer layer of hydrogen and helium up to ten percent in mass would be needed on top of the ice to account for the observed planetary radius. This obviates the need for an ice core. Alternatively, the planet may be a super-earth. 
  Observations of the planet's brightness temperature with the Spitzer Space Telescope suggest a possible thermochemical disequilibrium in the atmosphere of this exoplanet. Results published in Nature suggest that Gliese 436b's dayside atmosphere is abundant in CO and deficient in methane (CH₄) by a factor of ~7,000.  This result is unexpected because, based on current models at this temperature, the atmospheric carbon should prefer CH₄ over CO. In part for this reason, it has also been hypothesized to be a possible helium planet.
  In June 2015, scientists reported that the atmosphere of Gliese 436 b was evaporating, resulting in a giant cloud around the planet and, due to radiation from the host star, a long trailing tail 14×10⁶ km (9×10⁶ mi) long.
caption: Formation of a helium atmosphere on a helium planet, possibly like Gliese 436 b.
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