Scientists discover exoplanet with 20,500 mph winds — the fastest in the known universe

[Admin]

"The planet has complex weather patterns just like Earth and other planets of our own system."

Scientists discover exoplanet with 20,500 mph winds — the fastest in the known universe : Read more

 

[billslugg]

If the planet is tidally locked, the star stays fixed in the sky. There is no "morning side " or "evening side". I don't understand.

 

[24launch]

If the planet is tidally locked, the star stays fixed in the sky. There is no "morning side " or "evening side". I don't understand.

Sure it stays fixed in the sky, but the planet is still rotating and the atmosphere is whipping around it in the same direction as the rotation.

I had to play around with this in my head a bit. But think of the side of the planet that's leading into the orbit as the morning side and the side that's trailing as the evening side. The winds are whipping around in the same direction as the rotation, in fact six times faster. So as the winds go around the backside they cool making the "morning" side cooler as they come back around. And of course heat up more on the daylight side making the "evening" side warmer as they head back around the nightside.

20,500 MPH is nuts! Considering 17,500 is orbital velocity for Earth!

 

[George²]

Now I imagine how in 2050, with a new space telescope that is 50 times better than the best ones today, we can actually measure the wind speed of the closest exoplanets to us.