For the first time ever, researchers have managed to map and measure the weather system of a planet other than our own and the results are incredible: winds whipping at 5,400 miles per hour — roughly twenty times that of the fastest wind speed recorded on earth.
The discovery, which was made by researchers from the University of Warwick, focuses on a distant planet known as HD 189733b, which is located roughly 63 light years away in the constellation Vulpecula.
While the wind speeds are undoubtedly extreme, they’re by no means the only extreme aspect of the distant exo-planet. For starters, HD 189733b is roughly 10 percent larger than Jupiter and due to its close proximity to its sun–which is closer than our solar system’s innermost planet–scientists estimate its temperature to reach nearly 3,700 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s roughly 27 times hotter than the hottest recorded temperature on earth – 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
With wind blasting at over 2 kilometers a second, the exoplanet certainly knows a thing or two about speed and in the case of its orbital speed, it makes no exception as it orbits around its host star every 2.2 days at a speed of 341,000 miles per hour.
The lead researcher behind the discovery, Tom Louden with the University of Warwick’s Astrophysics Group, noted in a university press release that the discovery marks the “first ever weather map from outside of our solar system” and while we’ve “previously known of wind on exoplanets, we have never before been able to directly measure and map a weather system.”
This is the first ever weather map from outside of our solar system. Whilst we have previously known of wind on exoplanets, we have never before been able to directly measure and map a weather system.
In order to measure the planet’s velocity, Louden and his fellow researchers employed techniques that co-researcher Dr Peter Wheatly believes will eventually “allow us to image the weather systems on Earth-like planets.”
We are tremendously excited to have found a way to map weather systems on distant planets. As we develop the technique further we will be able to study wind flows in increasing detail and make weather maps of smaller planets. Ultimately this technique will allow us to image the weather systems on Earth-like planets.
The position and movements of the planet in front of its parent star were calculated based on the amount of light blocked by the exoplanet passing in front of its star. And it was with this data in hand that the researchers were able to map the planet’s velocity.
The research was accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Earlier this year, NASA engineers began to explore the concept of a wind-powered robotic probe capable of exploring distant gas giants such as HD 189733b.
