MEXICO: In a recent discovery, astronomers claim that they have detected heavy wind, approximately 5400mph on exoplanet. They discovered winds of over 5,400 miles per hour on a planet outside of Earth’s solar system.
In a recent discovery, astronomers claim that they have detected heavy wind, approximately 5400mph on exoplanet. They discovered winds of over 5,400 miles per hour on a planet outside of Earth’s solar system.
This staggering wind speed is 20 times greater than the fastest ever recorded on Earth, and would be seven times the speed of sound on our home planet, the University of Warwick reported.
“This is the first ever weather map from outside of our solar system. Whilst we have previously known of wind on exoplanets, we have never before been able to directly measure and map a weather system,” said lead researcher Tom Louden, of the University of Warwick’s Astrophysics group.
To make their findings, the researchers measured the velocities on two sides of the planet, dubbed HD 189733b. They spotted a torrential wind with speeds of over 5,400 miles per hour moving from the daytime side to the nighttime side. They were able to measure these velocities using high-resolution spectroscopy of the Sodium absorption present in the planet’s atmosphere. As parts of HD 189733b’s atmosphere moves towards or away from Earth the Doppler effect changes the wavelengths of this feature, allowing speeds to be measured.
