Astronomers Map the Extreme Weather of a Distant Hot Jupiter
Astronomers Map the Extreme Weather of a Distant Hot Jupiter
An emerging branch of science known as exometeorology is offering remarkable insights into the conditions found on some of the more extreme planets in the galaxy — including the weird and mind-boggingly massive weather patterns experienced on a hot Jupiter that’s 385 light years from Earth.
Hot Jupiters are those exotic class of extrasolar planets that are very similar in size and composition to Jupiter — but these massive gas giants orbit around their parent stars at ridiculously close distances. They’re located anywhere from 0.015 to 0.5 AU from their suns (1 AU = distance from Earth to the Sun).
Needless to say, the surface temperatures of hot Jupiters are extreme, hence the name. And to make things even more interesting, these planets are tidally locked; they all feature a daylight side that’s perpetually facing the sun.
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