The planet with the most extreme weather in the universe

Research by Swiss astronomers shows that exoplanet HD 189733 b has the most extreme weather in the universe.

The atmosphere of planet HD 189733 b has a temperature of up to 3,000 degrees Celsius. Photo: NASA/ESA

Researchers at the Universities of Geneva and Bern, Switzerland, calculated that winds on the exoplanet HD 189733 b travel at speeds of up to 8,700 km/h, seven times the speed of sound, the New Zealand Herald reported yesterday. However, these conditions are not harsh enough when compared to the glass rain on the planet, which has been compared to "a thousand deadly cuts".

"The nightmare world of HD 189733 b is death like no other. When viewed from a distance, the planet is a bright blue, easily mistaken for Earth's peaceful sky. But the weather here is deadly," NASA commented.

The planet's blue color is not the result of reflection from the ocean as on Earth, but rather the planet's atmosphere, which consists of clouds interspersed with silicate particles.

HD 189733b is a gas giant planet larger than Jupiter located 63 light-years from Earth. The planet is located in the constellation Vulpecula, also known as "the little fox." HD 189733b orbits its parent star at a distance 13 times closer than Mercury is to the Sun, completing one orbit in just 2.2 days.

According to Dr Kevin Heng, who led the study, the discovery is important because the results are based on observations from a small ground-based telescope with a diameter of 3.6 m at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in La Silla, Chile, but the measurements are of the same quality as the Hubble Space Telescope.

The technique Heng's team used was to measure the sodium signal from distant planets. When a planet passes in front of its parent star, the signal changes in strength. Depending on the strength of the signal, astronomers can calculate how hot the planet is.

Because the signal came from different altitudes, the team was able to measure temperature differences across the atmosphere. Near the ground, the planet's temperature dropped from 3,000 to 1,700 degrees Celsius.

To measure the winds, they looked for changes in the sodium signal transmitted to Earth. These changes indicate that the planet's winds move in a super-fast circular motion. Measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope have shown similar results.

Research by Swedish scientists opens up the opportunity to learn about the atmospheres of distant exoplanets without using massive observatories or space telescopes.

According to VNE