Exotic weather sweeps across giant alien planet
An artist's illustration of the exoplanet HAT-P-7b, a gas giant 16 times the size of Earth with exotic winds of rubies and sapphires that is 1,000 light-years away. Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick
Powerful winds sweep sparkling, gem-bright clouds through the upper atmosphere of the huge alien planet HAT-P-7b, a new study suggests.
"This is the first detection of weather on a gas giant planet outside the solar system," study lead author David Armstrong, of the University of Warwick in England, said in a statement.
HAT-P-7b, which is about 40 percent larger than Jupiter, lies 1,040 light-years from Earth. The planet completes one lap around its host star every 2.2 days. As a result of this extreme proximity, HAT-P-7b is tidally locked, meaning it always presents the same face to its parent star, just as the moon always shows just one side to Earth.
The exoplanet's "day side" and "night side" differ greatly in temperature and other characteristics, researchers said.
"We expect clouds to form on the cold night side of the planet, but they would evaporate quickly on the hot day side," Armstrong said.
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