Jan 29 2009
From The Space Library
A team of astronomers published research in the journal Nature, revealing that temperatures on the gas giant exoplanet known as HD 80606b can rise from 980°F to 2,240°F (527°C to 1,227°C) within 6 hours. The researchers had studied infrared measurements collected by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), to determine the amount of heat emanating from HD 80606b as its orbit neared its star. The planet travels around its star along an oblong orbit every 111.4 days—an orbit that scientists described as the most eccentric of any known planet. At its closest point to its star, HD 80606b receives 825 times more irradiation than at its farthest point. The eclipse that occurs in the moment before the planet’s closest approach to its star had enabled the astronomers to measure separately the amount of heat emanating from the planet, distinguishing it from the star’s heat. They had succeeded in measuring precisely how hot the planet becomes as it approaches its star. A computer model using Spitzer data had revealed global storms and shock waves in the planet’s atmosphere every 111 days, as it swings close to its star. The simulation showed that the increasing heat and expansion of the atmosphere produces very high winds—5 kilometers per second (3 miles per second), or more than 11,000 miles per hour (17,703 kilometers per hour)—moving from the day side of the planet to its night side.
Clara Moskowitz, “Extreme Exoplanet’s Wild Ride,” Wired, 29 January 2009; Jeanna Bryner, “Exoplanet Sees Extreme Heat Waves,” Space.com, 28 January 2009, http://www.space.com/6364-exoplanet-sees-extreme-heat-waves.html (accessed 27 April 2011); see also, Gregory Laughlin et al., “Rapid Heating of the Atmosphere of an Extrasolar Planet,” Nature 457, no. 7229 (29 January 2009): 562-564, http://ezproxy.ouls.ox.ac.uk:2346/nature/journal/v457/n7229/pdf/nature07649.pdf (DOI 10.1038/nature07649; accessed 27 April 2011).
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