In a milestone that has no precedents in astronomy, an international team of scientists has managed to map the 3D structure of the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system, revealing complex climatic patterns and the presence of chemical elements such as … iron and titanium. The finding, published in ‘Nature’ and in a second complementary article in ‘Astronomy & Astrophysics’, It is a great step forward in the detailed study of the atmospheric composition and the climate of alien worlds, which will facilitate the search for life beyond the earth.
The exoplanet in question, Wasp-121B, also known as ‘Tylos’, is about 900 light years away, in the Puppis constellation. It is a gaseous giant, classified as an ‘ultra-Caliente Jupiter’, and orbits its star at a distance so short that a year there lasts just 30 terrestrial hours. This extreme proximity also causes Tylos to be ‘anchored’ gravitatorially to the star, which always offers the same face. A face in which a scorching heat reigns, in contrast to the other, always in the shade and in which temperatures are icy.
«The atmosphere of this planet – says Julia Victoria Seidel, a researcher at the Austral European Observatory (ESO) in Chile and the main author of the study- behaves in ways that challenge our understanding of how the climate works, not only on earth, but in All planets. It seems something taken from science fiction ». A comparison nothing casual, since the phenomena observed in this distant world far exceed anything seen in our own solar system.
Three separate layers
The researchers, in fact, managed to penetrate very deeply into the atmosphere of Tylos, and observed different winds in separate layers, which allowed them, for the first time, to build a 3D map of the atmospheric structure of an exoplanet.
To achieve this, Seidel and his team used the espresso instrument, installed at the Vary Large Telescope (VLT) of the Southern European Observatory, which combines the light of the four 8.2 -meter telescopes that make up the VLT and makes it a single signal . In this way, the VLT is able to collect four times more light than each individual telescope, which allows it to capture much weaker signals and obtain unprecedented details. It is as if we had four eyes that, when combined, gave us a much more clear and detailed vision of things.
Thus, and when observing the planet during a complete transit in front of its host star, Espresso could detect the footprints of multiple chemical elements, distributed in different layers of the atmosphere. “The VLT – says Leonardo A. Dos Santos, co -author of the study – allowed to probe three different layers of the atmosphere of the exoplanet at once.” The researchers tracked the movements of iron, sodium and hydrogen, which allowed them to map the winds in the deep, medium and superficial layers of the atmosphere, respectively.
Inconceivable hurricanes
The results were surprising. Seidel and his team discovered a stream current that transports material around the planet’s equator, while a separate flow, below the atmosphere, moves gas from the hot side to the coldest side. “This type of climate,” says Seidel, “had never been seen before on any planet.” The observed jet current covers half of the planet, gaining speed and violently stirring the atmosphere at a high height as the hot side of Tylos crosses. «Even the strongest hurricanes of the Solar System – adds the researcher – seem quiet compared».
In addition, the complementary study published in ‘Astronomy & Astrophysics’ He revealed the presence of titanium just below the stream in jet. An unexpected finding, since previous observations of the planet indicated the absence of this element, which actually remained hidden in the deepest atmospheric layers. Titanium detection suggests a dynamic and complex atmosphere, where chemical elements are constantly mixed and redistributed.
Bibiana Prinoth, who directed the complementary study and is also co -author of the article of ‘Nature’, affirms that “it is really amazing that we can study details such as the chemical composition and the climatic patterns of a planet at such a large distance.”
An advance, in short, that is undoubtedly exciting, although astronomers are aware of current limitations. To study the atmosphere of smaller and similar planets, in effect, even larger and more powerful telescopes will be needed. Among them the ESO ESO Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in the Atacama Desert in Chile. «The ELT,” says Prinoth – will change the rules of the game for the study of exoplanet atmospheres. This experience makes me feel as if we were about to discover incredible things with which we can only dream ». The future of exoplanet research, then, now enters a new era of cosmic exploration, and current discoveries are only a small snack of what awaits us.
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