Detecting weather on a gas giant exoplanet

Signs of powerful changing winds have been detected on an exoplanet 16 times larger than Earth, according to a team involving UCL scientists. It's the first time that weather systems have been found on a gas giant outside the solar system. Led by the University of Warwick, the researchers discovered that the gas giant HAT-P-7b, which is located over 1000 light years away, is affected by large scale changes in strong winds moving across the planet, likely leading to catastrophic storms. For the study, published today in Nature Astronomy , the team monitored the light being reflected from the atmosphere of HAT-P-7b using NASA's space observatory, Kepler. They found that the brightest point of the planet shifts its position due to an equatorial jet with dramatically variable wind-speeds. The winds are so fast, they are capable of pushing vast amounts of cloud across the planet. The researchers say the clouds themselves would be visually stunning - likely made of up corundum, the mineral which forms rubies and sapphires - but the planet could never be inhabited because of its likely violent weather systems, and unaccommodating temperatures.