Forget the wind speed record recorded around Neptune with the more than 30,000 km/h calculated by astronomers around Wasp-127b, an exoplanet very far from our solar system, according to a press release Tuesday from the European Southern Observatory ( ESO).
Discovered in 2016, more than 500 light years from Earth, this gas giant planet is slightly larger than Jupiter. It is also much less dense, which gives it a “puffy” appearance, according to astronomers.
They observed it in detail using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, focusing on its atmosphere, detectable when the planet passes in front of its host star.
By measuring the way the star’s light passes through Wasp-127b’s upper atmosphere, they confirmed the presence of water vapor and carbon monoxide molecules there, using the CRIRES spectrograph.
And above all calculated the presence at the equator of jet winds at a speed exceeding 9 km per second, thus reaching up to 33,000 km/h, according to the study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Far from the record of 1800 km/h calculated on Neptune.
The recorded data shows that “part of this planet’s atmosphere is approaching us at high speed, while part is moving away from us at the same speed,” according to Lisa Nortmann, an astrophysics researcher at the University German from Göttingen and main author of the study, cited by the ESO.
-The researchers also discovered that Wasp-127b has cooler poles than the rest of the planet, and a slight difference in temperature between its morning and evening sides.
All of which shows that “the planet has complex climate regimes, just like Earth and other planets in our system,” according to Fei Yan, co-author of the study and professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, cited by ESO.
Beyond the record, the study illustrates ongoing progress in understanding the atmosphere and climate of exoplanets, recalls the observatory.
He quotes David Cont, of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, and co-author of the paper: “Understanding the dynamics of these exoplanets allows us to explore mechanisms such as heat redistribution and chemical processes. , which improves our understanding of planet formation and could shed light on the origins of our own solar system.
