Astronomers have observed the atmosphere of a hot and uniquely inflated exoplanet using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
Astronomers from the University of Arizona, along with an international group of researchers, observed the atmosphere of a hot and uniquely inflated exoplanet using NASA 's James Webb Space Telescope. The exoplanet, which is the size of Jupiter but only a tenth of its mass, is found to have east-west asymmetry in its atmosphere, meaning that there is a significant difference between the two edges of its atmosphere.
The exoplanet WASP-107b is tidally locked to its star. That means that the exoplanet always shows the same face to the star it is orbiting. One hemisphere of the tidally locked exoplanet perpetually faces the star it orbits, while the other hemisphere always faces away, resulting in a permanent day side and a permanent night side of the exoplanet.
The exoplanet WASP-107b is unique in that it has a very low density and relatively low gravity, resulting in an atmosphere that is more inflated than other exoplanets of its mass would be. "Traditionally, our observing techniques don't work as well for these intermediate planets, so there's been a lot of exciting open questions that we can finally start to answer," Murphy said."For example, some of our models told us that a planet like WASP-107b shouldn't have this asymmetry at all -- so we're already learning something new."
Murphy and his team have been working on the observational data they have gathered and are planning to take a much more detailed look at what's going on with the exoplanet, including additional observations, to understand what drives this asymmetry.
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