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First Map of an Extrasolar Planet
jiawen writes "Data from the Spitzer Space Telescope has been used by researchers to make the first-ever map of an extrasolar planet. It's a weather map, more precisely, showing temperature variations over the surface of a Hot Jupiter. It really is hot: even the coldest regions are about 1200 degrees F."
on google maps?
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So, how much is that in real temperature? Like, 35 degrees C or something?
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
but seriously. It orbits very close to its sun so is anyone surprised the damn thing is really hot?
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It doesn't seem all that long ago that scientists were merely *inferring* the presence of planets in other solar systems, now we are able to derive a map of one from IR data? Thats an amazing amount of progress for so short a time period. It would be interesting to know how far away this system is, and how large the planet is. If that data was in the article I seem to have missed it...
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You can read a preprint of the published paper for free. (The published version is here, but full text access requires a Nature subscription.)
Is this where we're headed?
The warmest spot is 927 C, on the equivalent of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, and the coolest region is 'only' 649 C.
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Seems it's only a matter of time now before we can image a planet with pretty city lights on the dark side.
They used a kajillion dollar instrument to find out the side near the sun is hotter than the rest?
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I think I can see surface.
Google-HD189733b (Beta, of course).
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...that the moderators just don't care anymore. Goodness knows I learned a lot from that one, good job slashdot. (I DID laugh though, so props to you timesprout).
This does bring up a lot of questions about the internal reactions going on in the planet, though, since we know the temperature isn't from sunlight alone. Maybe some sort of floating geothermal reactor is only years away from being completely disregaurded as unfeasible.
Man it's hot. It's like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot.
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Eheheheeh, yea, that is as said, fantastic for an exclamation - Hot Jupiters !!!
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That's amazing, batman!
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Looking at the map it seems like the polar regions are the coolest. If that is so and the planet is tidal locked shouldn't the far side be cooler ?
They're in the article, so thanks for the karma whoring.
How long before Al Gore makes a movie about it? :D
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if the surface is whipping around at 6000 MPH, how do they determine it's tidally locked ?
or maybe it's just probable in view of its proximity to the body it's orbiting.
All this so-called progress on extrasolar planets and yet we can't even find every planet in OUR OWN solar system. Many of the new ones being found were even photographed in the 1950s but no one realized they were actually moving---they thought they were just stars! From the wikipedia article on Quaoar: "The earliest prediscovery image proved to be a May 25, 1954 plate from Palomar Observatory."
Methinks this is the real reason for the pluto demotion controversy. The scientists are too embarassed to admit they can't find planets in our solar system, so they try to diminish their significance by reclassifying them. And try to shift focus to planets outside our solar system instead. Losers.
Doesn't it give you confidence in our ability to find deadly meteors heading our way, let alone do anything about them? *snicker*
How long before we receive transmissions from 3-breasted bubble-headed alien weather girls? With such a hot sun, she'll be a bleached blond for sure.
Table-ized A.I.
Can google maps give me driving instructions to it?
It seems like a little too recently that all the stars out there were thought to have no planets circling them.
Actually the 0 was fixed as a mix of ice and salt, that also happened to be the lowest temperature observed in winter time in his region (Wikipedia has a couple of such stories).
0F is much lower than the freezing point of water (around 0C or +32F).
Celsius fixed his 0 according to physical properties of water - freezing and boiling point.
Because they where the most easily reproducible in any lab wishing to calibrate it's thermometer during this time (compared to Farenheit which required a MIX with salt for the lower point and unreliable body temperature as upper point).
Nowadays, the Celsius has been redefined a little bit in order to have a stricter definition (based on absolute zero and water's triple point).
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Or, much more plausible, rotation is not locked on a 1:1 scale. If the relation is synchronized on some higher harmonic, like Mercury is locked on a 3:2 ratio, the hottest spot should be displaced in the east-west direction. If it were at 1:1, it's a bit difficult to see why the hottest spot should be displaced.
Locking on harmonics other than 1:1 have another interesting consequence: it seems to point to the existence of other planets on the system. It's only when the orbit is perturbed by other planets that higher harmonics happen in spin-orbit resonance. In our system, both Mercury and Venus seem to show tidal locking effects due to the presence of the Earth.
I knew it had to out there somewhere.
Okay, after taking a look at the article, the press release, and the associated images, I have a question about the pattern of recorded temperature on the surface of the planet. If the hot spot on the planet is offset by 30 degrees of the substellar (high noon) point because of a predicted 6,000 mph jetstream to the east, why then does the coolest equatorial temperature show up directly to the east of the hot spot? In other words, why doesn't the long orange tail of mid-temperatures extend to the east of the hot spot instead of to the west? Is there a basic principle that I'm missing here, or have i conceived the whole situation incorrectly?
Can i see it on astronomical map?