Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have detected a giant cyclone and other dynamic weather activity swirling around WASP-121b, an ultra-hot Jovian exoplanet about 881 light-years away in the constellation Papis. Detected.
This artist's illustration shows WASP-121b, an alien world where magnesium and iron gases are being lost from the atmosphere. Image credit: NASA/ESA/J. Olmsted, STScI.
WASP-121b is a gas giant exoplanet that is 1.87 times larger and 1.18 times heavier than Jupiter.
First discovered in 2016, the alien star takes just 1.3 days to orbit its parent star, F6 star WASP-121.
WASP-121b is so close to the star that if it got any closer, the star's gravity would begin to tear it apart.
Astronomers estimate that the planet's temperature is around 2,500 degrees Celsius (4,600 degrees Fahrenheit), hot enough to boil some metals.
In the new study, Caltech astronomer Jack Skinner and colleagues analyzed observations of WASP-12 b taken by Hubble in 2016, 2018, and 2019.
Researchers discovered that the planet has a dynamic atmosphere that changes over time.
Using advanced modeling techniques, they demonstrated that these dramatic temporal variations can be explained by weather patterns in the exoplanet's atmosphere.
They found that WASP-121b's atmosphere showed marked differences between observations.
Most dramatically, large temperature differences between the star-facing and dark sides of exoplanets can repeatedly generate and destroy large weather fronts, storms, and massive cyclones. .
The authors also note that there is an apparent misalignment between the hottest region of an exoplanet and the point on the planet closest to its star, as well as variability in the chemical composition of the exoplanet's atmosphere (spectroscopically measurement) was also detected.
They reached these conclusions by using computational models that help explain observed changes in the exoplanet's atmosphere.
“The incredible detail of exoplanet atmosphere simulations allows us to accurately model the climate of superhot planets like WASP-121b,” Dr. Skinner said.
“Now we have made significant progress by combining observational constraints and atmospheric simulations to understand the time-varying weather of these planets.”
“This is a very interesting result as we continue to observe the weather patterns of exoplanets,” said Dr. Quentin Cheniato, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
“Studying exoplanet climates is critical to understanding the complexity of exoplanet atmospheres on other worlds, especially in the search for exoplanets with habitable conditions.”
“The assembled dataset represents a significant amount of observation time for a single planet and is currently the only consistent set of such repeated observations.”
“The information we extracted from those observations was used to infer WASP-121b's atmospheric chemistry, temperature, and clouds at different times.”
“This yielded exquisite images of the planet as it changes over time.”
of the team paper will be published in Astrophysical Journal Appendix Series.
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Quentin Changeato other. 2024. Will the atmosphere of superhot Jupiter WASP-121b change? APJS, in press. arXiv: 2401.01465
Source: www.sci.news
