Planet's Permanent Night Sizzles at 300 Degrees Higher Than Its Permanent Day Due to Unusual Atmospheric Phenomenon
Rewritten Article:
Man, it's blazing hot in New York this week, with temps soaring into the mid-90s. But over at the South Pole, it's a bone-chilling -89 degrees Fahrenheit. Crazy, right? That's nothing compared to WASP-39b, a far-off exoplanet with a mind-bending temperature difference. One side is always lit, while the other's forever dark, but here's the kicker: the dark side is actually 300 degrees hotter.
This whopping, Jupiter-beating planet is 700 light-years away. As it orbits its star, it doesn't spin like Earth. Instead, one side is permanently star-gazing, while the other is perpetually hidden. You'd think the light side would burn, and the dark side would freeze, but that's not the case here. New data from the Webb Space Telescope shows that fierce winds develop on the lit side, zipping along at thousands of miles per hour, and charging towards the dark side. Winds from the dark side move the other way, carrying cold gas towards the light side. This setup means the dark side is a constant 1,450 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to vaporize you on contact, while the light side, surprisingly, is more overcast and cooler, around 1,150 degrees. It's not clear how the clouds affect the temperatures, but scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute are hoping to solve that mystery with further analysis.
The team managed to gather this info thanks to the Webb Space Telescope's near-infrared spectrograph, which compared light passing through WASP-39b's atmosphere as it crossed in front of the star to the light emitted by the star when it wasn't obstructed.
Earlier glimpses of WASP-39b revealed the presence of gases like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, water vapor, and sodium in the atmosphere. Now, researchers are aiming to point Webb at more tidally locked exoplanets to study their atmospheres and see if there are similar quirks in their weather patterns.
General principles gathered from other tidally locked exoplanets suggest that such planets have extreme temperature differences between their light and dark sides. Atmospheric circulation is crucial in redistributing heat and generating winds. These winds can result in complex weather patterns, with clouds forming on the dark side due to gas condensation as it moves from the hot side to the cool side. Future studies could offer more insights into WASP-39b's atmospheric dynamics and weather patterns.
- Despite the extreme temperature differences on WASP-39b, scientists are optimistic about unraveling the planet's weather patterns in the future.
- The temperature variance on WASP-39b is so significant that the dark side remains a constant 1,450 degrees Fahrenheit, while the light side surprisingly remains cooler, around 1,150 degrees.
- This south pole exoplanet, WASP-39b, exhibits unusual weather patterns due to its tidal locking, causing one side to be perpetually illuminated and the other perpetually dark.
- In the realm of science and technology, the Webb Space Telescope has been instrumental in shedding light on the unique atmospheric circulation and temperature differences on this far-off exoplanet, revealing the presence of gases like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, water vapor, and sodium.