New JWST data shows a Rogue planet with a combo colored with wavelengths, strong storms and beautiful aurora

For the planet Rogue Faraway Simp-0136, time calls clouds, stifling heat and a spectacular dawn that recalls the North Enlightenment on Earth. This meteorological report of another world is gracked with the James Webb space telescope (JWST), with instruments so precise that they are capable of detecting the tiny changes in the atmosphere of the planet.

In a new study published in Astronomy and astrophysicsThe latest observations of Simp-0136 reveal an auroral activity which, according to the researchers, warms its stratosphere. The aurora of the planet, as well as other distinct features such as layers of unequal clouds, appeared thanks to its rapid rotation.

The colorful characteristics of Simp-0136

Simp-0136, located 20 light years from Earth in the Milky Way, is considered a Voyou planet (or a floating planet), which means that it is not linked to any star. Sitting about 13 times the mass of Jupiter, the planet has all the good conditions to make it a perfect study subject. It is exceptionally brilliant and is not obscured by the contamination of light because it is so isolated.

Simp-0136 also has a rapid rotation period of only 2.4 hours, a useful factor for researchers who seek to question the planet. By observing its complete rotation, the researchers have found hundreds of light curves which represent luminosity changes, considered as a wide range of infrared wavele lengths (or colors).

These patterns delimit the characteristics of the planet, similar to the way in which the blue color would indicate the oceans of the earth, while the green and the brown would indicate the soil or the vegetation.

“Different light wavelengths are linked to different atmospheric characteristics. Similar to the observation of color changes on the surface of the earth, changes in the color of Simp-0136 are motivated by changes in atmospheric properties,” said the main author of the new study, Evert Nasedkin, a postdocctoral purse of Trinity College Dublin. “Thus, using peak models, we could deduce the temperature of the atmosphere, the chemical composition and the position of the clouds.”

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Rotating storms and heated dawn

The researchers involved in the new study were able to identify temperature changes of less than 5 degrees Celsius on Simp-0136. The variations in the chemical composition of the planet that cause these temperature changes, they say, are linked to storms that turn in sight.

“These are some of the most precise measures in the atmosphere of any extra-solar object to date, and the first time changes in atmospheric properties have been directly measured,” said Nasedkin.

Simp-0136 also shows the auroral activity produced by electrons that interact with its atmosphere. The researchers have hypothesized that the aurora reveals in the stratosphere of the planet, which is already seen with Jupiter. The dawn on Jupiter are known to heat its upper atmosphere, although the mechanisms behind this phenomenon are not entirely understood.

A patchwork of special clouds

Simp-0136 observations also revealed how its clouds work; Rather than having a varied cloud cover such as known on earth, Simp-0136 has a constant cloud cover. Its clouds are also very different from those of the earth, due to the high temperatures of the planet of more than 825 ° C (1517 ° F).

The matching wavelengths that the researchers observed from Simp-0136 helped them follow where the clouds are and what they are done. A group of wavelengths which comes deep in the atmosphere represents unequal clouds made up of iron particles. Other wavelengths are linked to higher clouds which are made of tiny silicate grains, similar to the sand on a beach.

In addition to unequal clouds and temperature fluctuations, wavelengths also reflect carbon chemistry in the planet’s atmosphere, pointing to different levels of methane and carbon monoxide.

The researchers say that the examination of the weather and the chemical processes that occur on exoplanets like Simp-0136 will be a critical company to move forward, especially since new projects like the extremely large telescope are set in motion.

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