Record-Shattering 20,000 Mph Winds Detected on Wild Alien Planet

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Winds have been discovered orbiting a gas giant planet more than 500 light-years from Earth, flowing at supersonic speeds approaching 33,000 kilometers (20,000 miles) per hour, making them the fastest air currents on any known planet by a wide margin.

Researchers from Europe cleaned and analyzed the spectrum of light reflected from the planet WASP-127b, revealing two contrasting peaks in the water and carbon dioxide signals, indicating the presence of supersonic jets disturbing the planet’s cloud tops.

“Part of this planet’s atmosphere is moving toward us at a high speed, while another part is moving away from us at the same speed.” He says The study’s lead author, Lisa Nortmann, is an astrophysicist at the University of Göttingen in Germany.

“This signal shows us that there are very fast, supersonic jet winds around the planet’s equator.”

Fast is an understatement. At an incredible speed of 7.5 to 7.9 kilometers per second, it outpaces any hurricane or jet stream known to science.

here on earth, The fastest wind blow ever The wind speed was 407 kilometers (253 miles) per hour, and was measured on the Australian island of Barrow in 1996. Neptune has the highest wind speeds in our solar system, but even 1,770 kilometers per hour High-altitude currents feel like a gentle breeze in comparison.

WASP-127b is a jet world, slightly larger than Jupiter but only with… 16% of Jupiter’s mass.

It is also thought to be tidally locked, orbiting parallel every 4.2 Earth days around its star, so one side is always baked to temperatures exceeding 1,000°C (1,832°F), and the other never turns from the cold night. sky.

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Discovered in 2016, the world has been the focus of intense investigations, leading to… Some more accurate measurements The atmosphere of an exoplanet so far.

Northman and her team used a tool called A High resolution cryogenic infrared echel spectrometer On the European Space Agency’s Very Large Telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile to measure the gas composition of WASP-127b.

Close examination of the signals revealed two clear peaks – one indicating that the material was approaching observers quickly, and the other was moving away at the same speed.

Differences in signal strength between the planet’s poles may indicate extreme temperature differences of hundreds of degrees Celsius between dusk and dawn, making WASP-127b a world of hellish extremes but not entirely unfamiliar.

“This shows that the planet has complex climate patterns just like Earth and the other planets in our system.” He says The author is Fei Yan, an astronomer at the University of Science and Technology of China.

In this flow, the space tourist will orbit the giant planet in hours, basking in the radiation of A A star resembling the sun Which fills its sky.

In addition to the surprising discovery of WASP-127b’s incredible winds, the team discovered predicted levels of carbon monoxide that had never been seen before, eliminating the need for outlandish theories about planetary formation.

This hot cotton ball is not alone As far as low density planets goThey represent an exotic class of gas giants that could contribute to our knowledge of how planetary systems emerge from their swirling nebulae.

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Having a clear measure of the air currents that move material around on extreme worlds like this could inform models that describe how planets form, grow, and evolve, which could help us better understand the history and fate of planets within our solar system.

This research was published in Astronomy and astrophysics.

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