A team of researchers has discovered winds of over 2km per second flowing around planet outside of the Earth’s solar system.
The University of Warwick discovery is the first time that a weather system on a planet outside of Earth’s solar system has been directly measured and mapped.
The wind speed recorded is 20x greater than the fastest ever known on earth, where it would be seven times the speed of sound.
Commenting on the discovery, lead researcher Tom Louden said that this is the first ever weather map from outside of our solar system. Whilst they have previously known of wind on exoplanets, they have never before been able to directly measure and map a weather system.
The researchers say that the techniques used could help the study of Earth-like planets.
HD 189733b is one of the most studied of a class of planets known as ‘Hot Jupiters’. At over 10 percent larger than Jupiter, but 180x closer to its star, HD 189733b has a temperature of 1800’C. Its size and relatively closeness to our solar system make it a popular target for astronomers.
