The planet farthest from the Sun, Neptune, is the windiest place in the solar system, with winds blowing at speeds of over 0.3 miles per second (0.5 kilometers per second). This is a relatively pleasant wind speed compared to the giant, chubby planet located about 500 light years from Earth.
Supersonic winds on this exoplanet, dubbed WASP-127b, travel at 5.5 miles per second (9 kilometers per second). The speed of sound on Earth is approximately 0.21 miles per second (0.34 km/s), making these winds supersonic by our Earthly standards. The newly discovered extraterrestrial jet stream is the fastest ever measured on the planet, providing new insight into the extreme weather conditions that prevail on other worlds.
Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile, a team of astronomers measured the extremely powerful winds that are raging at the equator of WASP-127b. According to the study, published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, the jet winds move at speeds of up to 20,500 miles per hour (33,000 kilometers per hour), which is almost six times the speed of the planet’s rotation.
Astronomers discovered the exoplanet in 2016, a gas giant that is slightly larger than Jupiter but has half the mass, making it quite bloated. WASP-127b takes just over four days to orbit its star, a yellow dwarf or G-type star, which are typically less massive and colder than our Sun.
Since the planet’s discovery, scientists have been studying it to learn more about its weather conditions. The team behind the new study used VLT to trace the planet’s composition by measuring how light from the host star passes through its upper atmosphere. The results showed the presence of water vapor and carbon monoxide molecules in the planet’s atmosphere. The speed at which this material moved through the atmosphere, however, revealed a rather strange “double peak,” according to the study, meaning that one side of the atmosphere is moving toward us and the other away from us at high speeds.
Based on their measurements, the researchers concluded that the planet’s equator is dominated by extremely powerful winds that appear to be squeezing the gas giant as parts of its atmosphere move in opposite directions. “This is something we haven’t seen before,” Northmann said.
The study also showed that the planet’s poles are colder than the rest of its surface, and the temperature on the morning and evening sides is slightly different. “This suggests that the planet has complex weather conditions, similar to Earth and other planets in our system,” said Fei Yang, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China and co-author of the study, in a statement.
Scientists are learning more about planets orbiting stars other than our own by analyzing the atmospheres of other worlds with extreme precision to piece together our own origin story. “Understanding the dynamics of these exoplanets helps us investigate mechanisms such as heat redistribution and chemical processes, improving our understanding of planet formation and potentially shedding light on the origin of our own solar system,” said David Kont of Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany, and co-author of the paper.
More than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered so far, but there is still much to learn.
