Three layers of the atmosphere of a giant tyro gas
ESO/m. Cone Messer
The atmosphere of a distant world is mapped in detail for the first time, revealing a strange, dizzy weather system, and the fastest winds ever blew inexplicably around the Earth’s stratosphere.
Astronomers have been studying the WASP-121B, also known as Tylos, since 2015. A planet 900 light years away is a vast ball of gas twice the size of Jupiter, and its star orbits very closely, completing its orbit just 30 Earth Hours. This close orbit heats the planet’s atmosphere to a temperature of 2500°C, and is hot enough to boil iron.
now, Julia Seidel At Chile and her colleagues’ observatory in southern Europe, they used a very large telescope to see the burnt, hot atmosphere of Tyros, and at least three different layers of gas move in different directions around the globe. I knew it was. I saw it. “It’s absolutely crazy, it’s a science fiction-like pattern and behavior,” Seidel says.
The atmosphere of our solar system planets shares a very similar structure when a strong wind jet flow blowing below the atmosphere is driven by an internal temperature difference, while the air above the one produces a temperature difference caused by heat. It is more affected by the sun warming the sun side of the planet, but not the other.
However, in the Tylos atmosphere, the lower winds are driven by heat from the stars and travel away from the warm surface, while the jet stream appears primarily in the central layer of the atmosphere, surrounding the Earth’s equator. Moves in the direction of the planet’s rotation. The upper layer also exhibits jetstream-like characteristics, but hydrogen gas floats outward from the planet. This is difficult to explain using current models, Seidel says. “What we’re looking at now is actually the opposite of what comes out of theory.”
Furthermore, Tylos’ jetstream is the most powerful ever, blasting at about 70,000 km/h on half the planet. This is almost twice as much as the previous record holder. It is unknown what exactly drives this velocity, but researchers believe it is caused by the planet’s strong magnetic field or by ultraviolet rays from the stars. “This could change the flow pattern, but this is all very speculative,” Seidel says.
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