Inbox Astronomy: NASA's Webb Maps Weather on Planet 280 Light-Years Away

INBOX ASTRONOMY

NASA's Webb Maps Weather on Planet 280 Light-Years Away

Release date: Tuesday, April 30, 2024 10:00:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

WASP-43 b is cloudy on the nightside and clear on the dayside, with equatorial winds howling around the planet at 5,000 miles per hour. 

Sometimes not finding something is just as exciting and useful as finding it. Take hot Jupiter WASP-43 b, for example. This tidally locked world has a searing-hot, permanent dayside and a somewhat cooler nightside. Astronomers using Webb to map the temperature and analyze the atmosphere around the planet expected to detect methane, a common carbon molecule, on the nightside. But there is clearly no sign of it. Why? The result suggests that supersonic winds of hot gas are blowing around from the dayside, thoroughly churning up the atmosphere, and preventing the chemical reactions that would otherwise produce methane on the nightside.

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Find additional articles, images, and videos at WebbTelescope.org

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