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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: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday December 17 2016, @08:11AM
what would cause a gas planet to have the aluminum and oxygen for this while Jupiter doesn't?
What makes you think Jupiter doesn't? Aluminum tends to be a lot denser than hydrogen, water, and methane so it's going to be stuck way down. You won't see it in the atmosphere beyond really low trace amounts (unless these storms are more adept at pulling up material from below than I first assume). This exoplanet is extremely hot for starters. Anything light has been vaporized off by the combination of heat and star wind. Thus, we don't have the extensive layers of atmosphere over anything containing aluminum. That also enables corundum to exist in gas and liquid states as well as solid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @04:18PM
You couldn't read the next three words after the quote?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 18 2016, @01:41AM
You couldn't read the next three words after the quote?
I find that question remarkably useless. It adds nothing to the conversation than to say that you are a jerk. I'm sure we really all ought to learn all about how amazing you can be as a jerk, but... could you please be a jerk in a constructive way? Is that too much to ask?