This is how fast the winds blow on this planet.
There are very strange planets in our Universe. And we also have very powerful telescopes to see them. James Webb (JWST) is one of them. And thanks to him, it was possible to identify the planet in that the wind blows at a speed of about 9000 km/h..
According to a study published in the journal Nature, a team of scientists led by Taylor Bell used JWST to analyze meteorology on a planet 280 light-years from Earth: a hot gas giant with one side constantly facing the Sun and the other is shrouded in eternal night.
The planet named WASP-43b is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. and it is significantly hotter than any gas giant in our solar system due to its proximity to its parent star, which it orbits every 19 Earth hours.
Bell’s team discovered that a planet’s fixation on its star permanently heats one of its faces and reaches temperatures of about 1260 degrees Celsius, hot enough to melt iron. This scorching heat vaporizes the rock and carries it into the clouds.
The temperature difference between the day and night sides, which Relatively colder (about 600°C).generates ferocious winds that can reach speeds of up to 9000 km/h.
WASP-43b was Discovered in 2011 and initially studied by the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. but JWST’s superior resolution has now captured the finest atmospheric detail.
“With Hubble, we could clearly see that there was water vapor on the day side. Both Hubble and Spitzer suggested there could be clouds on the night side, Bell explained in a statement. But we needed more accurate measurements from Webb to really start mapping temperatures, cloud cover, winds and more detailed atmospheric composition across the planet.”
To measure the planet’s temperature, the researchers used JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to measure the light coming from the system. every 10 seconds for more than 24 hours.
“By observing the entire orbit, we were able calculate the temperature of different sides of the planet when they come into view,” Bell adds. From here we could build a rough map of temperatures across the entire planet.”
JWST’s infrared measurements also revealed the planet’s chemical composition, which includes water vapor but no methane. Methane is usually produced on planets of this type. due to reactions between hydrogen and carbon monoxidebut the planet’s strong winds can transport this methane to the planet’s dayside, where it is destroyed by the intense radiation from its parent star.