Scientists Map Weather on Hot Gas Planet WASP-43b 280 Light Years Away

SPACE – Scientists have mapped the weather on a planet 280 light years from Earth, a hot gas planet with one side facing the sun permanently and the other side shrouded in eternal night.

The double-faced planet, named WASP-43b, is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. It is much hotter than any gas giant planet in our solar system, because it is so close to its parent star.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers discovered that WASP-43b was permanently trapped, heating one side of its surface to about 1,260 degrees Celsius. Temperatures sufficient to melt iron continue to move rocks and turn them into clouds.

The great difference in temperature between day and night drives strong winds, reaching speeds of 9,000 km/hour. For comparison, the average bullet velocity is a handgun 4.500 km / s. LThe planet’s space weather reports were published in the journal Astrology of nature on April 30, 2024.

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WASP-43b was discovered in 2011 and was first observed by the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. However, the advanced resolution of the James Webb telescope, which has only been operating for the past two years, has obtained more detailed information about the atmosphere.

The study’s lead author, Taylor Bell, said Hubble could clearly see water vapor in daylight WASP-43b. Hubble and Spitzer also predict that there may be clouds at night.

“But we need more detailed measurements from Webb to start mapping temperature, cloud cover, wind and atmospheric composition more precisely across the planet,” said the researcher at the Bay Area Institute for Environmental Studies, California.

To measure WASP-43b’s temperature, researchers measured light from the planetary system every 10 seconds for more than 24 hours using the James Webb Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). “By observing the entire orbit, we can calculate the temperature of different aspects of the planet as they rotate. “From there, we can create a rough map of temperature across the planet,” Bell said.

James Webb’s infrared measurements also showed the chemical composition of the planet, which includes water vapor but no methane. Methane is usually produced on this type of planet through the reaction between hydrogen and carbon monoxide. But it seems that strong winds on the planet WASP-43b carried the methane into the daytime portion, where it was destroyed by powerful radiation from its host star.

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Following on from that discovery, another team used James Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec) instrument to develop temperature maps and measure carbon monoxide in the planet’s two-phase atmosphere. Source: Living Science