Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Tracking the Weather On an Exoplanet

Posted by Soulskill on from the for-when-dad-runs-out-of-content-on-the-weather-channel dept.

schwit1 writes: Scientists have begun gathering increasingly detailed information about the atmosphere and weather on the exoplanet HD189733B, 63 light years away with an orbit that produces a transit every 2.2 days. The temperature appears to rise with increasing altitude, reaching 3,000 degrees at the top of the atmosphere. There are also strong winds blowing from the cold to the hot side of the planet.

11 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Small Correction by anzha · · Score: 4, Informative

    An exoplanet should NOT be HD189733B. A capital B would denote a star. A lower case b denotes a planet. And, yes, you can have a HD XXXXBb. Alpha Centauri Bb is one of those. Its an S type circumbinary system. For those who are interested, I have a blog which links to the exoplanet papers are they come out, whether its from arxiv or one of the scientific journals.

    --
    Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
    1. Re:Small Correction by Ryanrule · · Score: 2

      Oh come on, we are just starting at this, and already its a clusterfuck.

    2. Re:Small Correction by anzha · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you mean 'just started' to mean 'for 20+ years now,' sure. The nomenclature for stars has been around for far, far longer. Exoplanets are given their b-c-d-e etc designation - never a, btw - in the order of discovery, not the order in the planetary system as well. Its not a clusterfuck. Its just a different discipline's rules and they've been consistent for a generation at least.

      --
      Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
    3. Re:Small Correction by sconeu · · Score: 2

      Alpha Centauri B Flat?

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    4. Re: Small Correction by anzha · · Score: 2

      yup. I'm afraid the blackhole made by LHC ate your QP doll though. Sorry.

      --
      Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
  2. Wondering... by drooling-dog · · Score: 2

    ...how long it will be before the climate on HD189733b becomes a political issue.

  3. Weather forecast by rossdee · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not going to be very usefil knowing what its going to be like tomorrow when that was 63 years ago

  4. If you thought NOAA Has a hard time .... by pollarda · · Score: 2

    If you think NOAA has it hard now, just imagine what a bitch it will be to provide accurate 10 day weather reports for an exoplanet 64 light years away given 64 year old data.

    And j ust so you know, I'm going to drive my SUV no matter what they tell me I might be doing to the weather patterns of some random exoplanet.

  5. Re:Exoglobal warming by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 2

    Well, forcing it to trade-in it's Hummer for a tax credit to buy a new Tesla, Prius or Leaf would be a start -- also, banning sodas, severely taxing and restricting smoking and requiring fast food franchises to offer healthy alternatives can't hurt.

  6. Notable point in history by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2

    Every once in awhile I like to mentally stop and take a look around to see where we are. I think this is a good moment for that.

    Notice that we are collecting data on the weather patterns of a planet not in our solar system.

    We live in the future.

  7. We just covered this paper in our class last week by StupendousMan · · Score: 2

    I'm co-teaching a graduate course on exoplanets, and we talked about this paper in one of our meetings last week. Here's the link to our discussion of "spectroscopy of exoplanet atmospheres:"

          http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/e...

    You can read all our materials at

          http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/e...

    Enjoy!

    --
    Michael Richmond "This is the heart that broke my finger."
    mwrsps@rit.edu http://stupendous.rit.edu