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Astronomers have detected cloud movement on a Jupiter-like exoplanet. They also suggest that the clouds may be composed of corundum:
Powerful winds sweep sparkling, gem-bright clouds through the upper atmosphere of the huge alien planet HAT-P-7b, a new study suggests. "This is the first detection of weather on a gas giant planet outside the solar system," study lead author David Armstrong, of the University of Warwick in England, said in a statement.
HAT-P-7b, which is about 40 percent larger than Jupiter, lies 1,040 light-years from Earth. The planet completes one lap around its host star every 2.2 days. As a result of this extreme proximity, HAT-P-7b is tidally locked, meaning it always presents the same face to its parent star, just as the moon always shows just one side to Earth.
[...] "These results show that strong winds circle the planet, transporting clouds from the night side to the day side," he said. "The winds change speed dramatically, leading to huge cloud formations building up, then dying away." And those clouds are almost certainly unlike anything here on Earth, the researchers added: Modeling work suggests that HAT-P-7b's clouds are composed at least partially of corundum, the mineral that forms sapphires and rubies.
Variability in the atmosphere of the hot giant planet HAT-P-7 b (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41550-016-0004) (DX)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday December 16 2016, @10:53PM
I think the best answer is:
Our model of a "normal" solar system was for a long time based on what we see in our own. Some inner rocky planets, an asteroid belt, some gas giants, Kuiper belt (which has expanded dramatically, and now we are looking for a new gas giant).
Now we have Kepler data and we are finding all sorts of crazy planetary scenarios. Like gas giants orbiting closer to their star than mercury. Possible "ocean planets". Rocky planets smaller than Neptune but bigger than Earth. A Saturn-like planet with rings that are orders of magnitude bigger.
We don't know for sure what caused this, and it is harder to characterize the atmospheres of exoplanets than it is to find them. Hopefully the James Webb Space Telescope [nasa.gov] will allow us to better characterize the atmospheres and surfaces of exoplanets. Heck, we might find indirect evidence of alien life within the first year of launching the telescope.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Dunbal on Saturday December 17 2016, @02:40AM
Still waiting for Thread...