Planet with quickest identified winds within the Universe ‘has climate system like Earth’
Scientists have found a planet with the fastest known winds in the solar system – its winds are 2,000 times faster than Neptune, which has the fastest winds in our solar system
Supersonic winds circling a gas giant 500 light years away have been detected on a planet with an Earth-like weather system – the winds are the fastest winds known in the universe.
The winds that circle the plant WASP-127b – located 500 light years away reached – a breakneck 30,000 kilometres per hour. Similar to planets in our solar system such as Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, WASP-127b is a gas giant. WASP-127b is believed to be tidally locked. The planet is slightly larger than Jupiter, however, only has just 16% of the mass of the planet.
In a recent study of the planet, Fei Yan, an astronomer with the University of Science and Technology in China, and an author on the study said: “The planet has complex weather patterns like Earth and other planets of our own system.”
For context, the planet with the fastest winds in our solar system is Neptune, with a staggering 2,000 kilometres per hour, is completely blown away by WASP-127b which has winds that are more than 15 times faster. These winds are ridiculously quick and at a breathtaking 7.5 to 7.9 kilometres per second they completely outstrip any hurricane or jet streams known to science.
On the atmosphere, the study’s lead author, Lisa Nortmannn, an astrophysicist at the University of Göttingen in Germany said: “Part of the atmosphere of this planet is moving towards us at high velocity while another part is moving away from us at the same speed.”
The lead author added: “The signal shows us that there is a very fast, supersonic, jet wind around the planet’s equator.”
Instruments called Cryogenic high-resolution infrared echelle spectrograph were used to measure the gases found on WASP-127b.
The data showed variations between the planet’s poles may indicate extreme temperatures of potentially hundreds of degrees difference between dusk and dawn on the planet, and reveal a world of extremes.
These measurements of such an extreme world can help inform models which describe how planets grow and evolve over time, and can be used to better help us understand planets in our own solar system.
