Tornadoes and hurricanes are causing increasingly devastating damage on Earth. Astronomers have now discovered storms of a completely different size on a distant exoplanet. There, supersonic jet streams that race around the equator reach speeds of almost 33,000 km/h.
At the equator of the gas giant WASP-127b, scientists using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile recorded air currents of nine kilometers per second (corresponding to almost 33,000 kilometers per hour). These are the fastest wind speeds ever measured on a planet, ESO reports on its website.
Jet streams are air currents that circulate in the atmosphere at higher altitudes. They also exist on Earth, but according to researchers they reach maximum speeds of about 500 to 700 kilometers per hour. The fastest jet stream in the solar system was observed on the planet Neptune at a speed of about 1,100 miles per hour.
“This is something we have never seen before,” emphasizes expert Lisa Hartmann from the University of Göttingen, one of the lead authors of the study published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics”, referring to the speeds of the jet stream on WASP 127b. It moves almost six times faster than the planet itself rotates on its axis.
Gas giant is slightly larger than Jupiter
WASP-127b is a gas giant that, according to researchers, is slightly larger than the planet Jupiter, but has only a fraction of its mass. Using VLT instruments, the researchers were able to detect water vapor and carbon monoxide molecules in the atmosphere. They were also able to determine the speed at which these molecules move around the planet’s equator.
It also revealed small temperature differences between the morning and evening sides of WASP-127b. Apparently, the exoplanet exhibits complex weather patterns similar to those on Earth. This is an example of how exoplanet research is currently progressing rapidly.
So-called exoplanets are planets that orbit more distant stars outside the solar system.
Source: Krone
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