Cyclones on exoplanet WASP-121 b

This video shows massive cyclones being repeatedly created and destroyed on exoplanet WASP-121 b because of huge temperature differences between the star-facing side and the dark side of the exoplanet.

WASP 121-b is tidally locked, meaning that the same side of the planet is always facing its host star. The result is that the star-facing side (the ‘day side’) is heated to super-hot temperatures of more than 3000 K.

In this research, an international team of astronomers assembled and reprocessed Hubble observations of the exoplanet made in the years 2016, 2018 and 2019. This provided them with a unique dataset that allowed them not only to analyse the atmosphere of WASP-121 b, but also to see how it changed across several years. The team then used sophisticated modelling techniques to demonstrate that the changes they saw over time could be explained by weather patterns in the exoplanet's atmosphere, as seen here.

The result represents a significant step forward in potentially observing weather patterns on exoplanets. The video has been slowed down to show the patterns in the exoplanet’s atmosphere in more detail.

Read more