A team led by Johanna Vos, Associate Professor of Physics at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), has found an \u2018aurora\u2019 around a planet called SIMP-0136, using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). <\/p>\n
An aurora, on Earth, is a natural light display in the sky, seen at high and low latitudes. The effect is caused by collisions of charged particles from the Sun with atmospheric gases near the poles.<\/p>\n
It produces the spectacular green and reddish \u2018Northern Lights\u2019 sometimes visible in Donegal, and the lesser known \u2018Southern Lights\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe suspected that there was an aurora on SIMP-0136 from earlier radio observations, but we didn\u2019t anticipate being able to confirm it with the JWST,\u201d said Professor Vos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we found was that the precision of the JWST allowed us to make very good measurements of how the temperature changes at different altitudes in the atmosphere (of SIMP-0136).<\/p>\n
\u201cSimilar to here on Earth, we expected the atmosphere to become colder at higher latitudes. Instead, we found that at some point the atmosphere started becoming warmer again, which we are only able to explain by heating from an aurora.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scientists believe temperatures existing on SIMP-0136 are over 1,500 Celsius, but despite this, Prof Vos was able to capture small changes, less than 5 Celsius, in the planet\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes in temperature were related to subtle changes in the chemical composition of this free-floating planet, which is suggestive of storms \u2013 similar to Jupiter\u2019s Great Red Spot,\u201d said Prof Vos.<\/p>\n
Another surprise was the constant cloud coverage, unlike Earth, where there are patches of clouds mixed with clear blue sky.<\/p>\n
On Earth, clouds are made up of tiny liquid water droplets and ice crystals, but on SIMP-0136 Prof Vos believes, from observations, that they are made up of silicate grains, like sand.<\/p>\n
The Exo-Aimsir Group, led by Prof Vos and including PhD candidates Merle Schrader, Madeline Lam and Cian O\u2019Toole was set up to better understand weather on exo-planets beyond our Solar System.<\/p>\n
More than 6,000 such exo planets have been discovered since the first pair were confirmed in 1992.<\/p>\n
But, why are such studies relevant to our lives here on Earth?<\/p>\n
\u201cFor several reasons,\u201d said Prof Vos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first is the economics of it: basic research into astronomy can lead to unexpected technological advancements, from WIFI, to microwaves to GPS satellites and digital cameras.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important to ask big questions, and to understand the world and universe that we live in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really just the beginning of understanding the weather on other worlds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could see how things change as SIMP-0136 rotates, but in the long term we want to understand the atmospheric dynamics.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre there stable storms like the Great Red Spot on Jupiter? Does it have bands and spots, or does it look different to anything in the Solar System,\u201d she continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always wondered if we\u2019re alone in the Universe and studying these atmospheres is one step on the path to answering that question.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research is published today in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A team led by Johanna Vos, Associate Professor of Physics at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), has found an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,898,82,247],"class_list":{"0":"post-44347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-latest-news-ticker","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}