This distant exoplanet has an atmosphere ‘like something out of science fiction’

For decades, astronomers have been wondering about planets beyond our solar system — called exoplanets — and whether we could learn about these far-off worlds. With the introduction of tools like the James Webb Space Telescope, we’re now able to not only detect exoplanets, but also to learn about them in detail. Recently, astronomers created the first 3D view of an exoplanet atmosphere, letting them peer into the climate of another world.

The researchers used a ground-based telescope, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), which consists of four telescopes that work together to take detailed readings of distant objects. They found that exoplanet WASP-121b, which has surface temperatures of over 3,000 Kelvins, or 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, is so hot that metals like iron and titanium can be whipped up into the atmosphere, carried by powerful winds.

“This planet’s atmosphere behaves in ways that challenge our understanding of how weather works — not just on Earth, but on all planets. It feels like something out of science fiction,” said lead researcher Julia Victoria Seidel of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile.

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By looking at the 3D structure of the atmosphere, the researchers found that the planets has winds which act in different layers. The iron, sodium, and hydrogen elements all move in separate layers which rotate differently relative to the orbit of the planet. It’s a complex, involved picture which underlines that other planets have systems which are just as complex — or even more so — than the climate of our own planet, and that there are many possible new configurations of climate for us to discover.

“What we found was surprising: a jet stream rotates material around the planet’s equator, while a separate flow at lower levels of the atmosphere moves gas from the hot side to the cooler side,” said Seidel. “This kind of climate has never been seen before on any planet.”

An animation shows the findings of different layers and how they move around the planet:

The observations were made using the VLT’s ESPRESSO instrument, which brings together data from four large telescopes into one signal, allowing the researchers to track the movement of elements like iron, sodium, and hydrogen. By following these movements, they could track the path of the winds and build up a 3D model.

“It’s truly mind-blowing that we’re able to study details like the chemical makeup and weather patterns of a planet at such a vast distance,” said fellow researcher Bibiana Prinoth of Lund University, Sweden.

The research is published in two papers in the journals Nature and Astronomy & Astrophysics.