Weather-like phenomena spotted on exoplanet
Nature Astronomy
2016년12월13일
The atmosphere of the gas giant planet HAT-P-7 b changes irregularly over time, reports a study published online in Nature Astronomy this week. Such weather-like changes have not been previously observed on a giant planet outside our Solar System.
Observations of exoplanetary atmospheres, while still difficult to perform, have become more common in recent years. Detecting any changes in their atmospheres, however, is significantly more complicated, as currently available instruments do not usually have the required sensitivity. Such observations are nevertheless invaluable for our understanding of how exoplanets work.
David Armstrong and colleagues analysed four years of light intensity fluctuation measurements that the Kepler spacecraft made of HAT-P-7 b, a gas giant exoplanet with a surface temperature of approximately 2,200 K (1,927 °C; 3,500 °F) that rotates approximately every two days around its star. They found that the position of the peak brightness changed with time, due to variations in atmospheric wind speed. This dynamic caused, in turn, variations in the cloud coverage of the planet.
The authors note that their discovery opens the prospect of monitoring weather changes on exoplanets in the future, and that planned space missions such as JWST, CHEOPS or PLATO, which feature higher sensitivity instruments, will be able to rapidly increase the number of such studies.
doi: 10.1038/s41550-016-0004
리서치 하이라이트
-
7월29일
Engineering: Just add water to activate a disposable paper batteryScientific Reports
-
7월26일
Physics: Slab avalanche origin similar to that of earthquakesNature Physics
-
7월13일
Planetary science: Origins of one of the oldest martian meteorites identifiedNature Communications
-
7월12일
Physics: Beam vibrations used to measure ‘big G’Nature Physics
-
7월12일
Astronomy: Casualty risk from uncontrolled rocket re-entries assessedNature Astronomy
-
7월6일
Biotechnology: Mice cloned from freeze-dried somatic cellsNature Communications