Uploaded December 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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***** Temperatures get so hot during the day on this planet that the iron on the surface evaporates into the atmosphere and creates "clouds of metal!" Then at night on this Exoplanet WASP-76b (600 light years from Earth), the temperature cools dramatically and the iron solidifies from its vapor state and falls back to the surface like rain. ("Iron Rain"). This turbulent, brilliant display of hail-like rain of iron clatters to the surface, like tiny marbles spilling out of a metal box.
Dr. Sam Illingworth, planetary scientist, university professor, and poet, wrote the text below which describes the "raining of iron" phenomenon. This is an excerpt from the poem, "Beneath an Iron Sky."

SSAA/Piano 4-hands; (also SATB); Walton Music
Duration: 4:25
[Recording by Clay West, conductor, and the Sam Houston State University BELLES VOIX.]

BENEATH AN IRON SKY (excerpt)
. . .
As the searing heat
scorches the barren sky,
estranged metals disperse into
the turbulent atmosphere,
carried by Khamsin to
the cool, crisp nights,
where they tumble
to the surface
as a cooling balm of
ferrous mist.
Lost in time,
like rust in rain.

"Khamsin" is an oppressive, hot wind.
"Ferrous" is something containing or consisting of iron.
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