Forecast today: 2,300 degrees with 5,000 mph wind; Webb telescope gleans weather on planet 280 light years out
A daily forecast on exoplanet WASP-43 b could look something like this: Thick cloud cover at night, clear skies during the day, and upper-level winds of about 5,000 mph.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope continues to send back breathtaking images from other galaxies and celestial bodies but also provides data on worlds outside our solar system, including temperature, chemical composition and light, painting a picture of what the weather could look like on exoplanets.
The latest exoplanet forecast courtesy of JWST is for WASP-43 b, a "hot Jupiter" type exoplanet about 280 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sextans. Researchers recently published their findings using Webb Early Release Science program data.
WASP-43 b was first discovered in 2011 and observed by NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. NASA has confirmed more than 5,200 exoplanets, but scientists believe billions of these worlds exist.
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WASP-43 b is tidally locked with its star, keeping one side of the planet in permanent darkness and the other in sunlight.
Scientists used Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to measure infrared light to determine the planet's temperature over an entire 19.5-hour orbit and create a temperature map of its side in daylight and its side in permanent night. According to their findings, during the day, the planet would average a temperature of 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit, but the planet's night side is more than 1,000 degrees cooler.
Scientists could use the data to create 3D atmospheric models similar to those we use for weather on Earth. The findings show WASP-43 b is likely covered in thick, high clouds on the planet's nightside, helping keep the temperature down.
Webb also measured the amount of water vapor and methane around the planet, providing more clues about cloud thickness and their height in the atmosphere.
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The data revealed a surprise when the team expected to find methane in abundance in the atmosphere on the cooler nightside of the planet. According to the research team, the reason for this is high-speed wind.
"The fact that we don't see methane tells us that WASP-43b must have wind speeds reaching something like 5,000 miles per hour," said Joanna Barstow, a co-author from the Open University in the U.K. "If winds move gas around from the dayside to the nightside and back again fast enough, there isn’t enough time for the expected chemical reactions to produce detectable amounts of methane on the nightside."
Despite the differences in temperature and light on the tidally locked planet, scientists believe the wind keeps the atmospheric chemistry the same throughout the world.
Original article source: Forecast today: 2,300 degrees with 5,000 mph wind; Webb telescope gleans weather on planet 280 light years out
