Mysterious 'Hot Spot' Seen on Distant Exoplanet

Analysis by Ian O'Neill
Tue Oct 19, 2010 01:29 PM ET

The science of exoplanets has exploded in recent years with astronomers able to directly image these worlds, analyze their atmospheres and deduce whether they're habitable (or not). Now, in a new study by the NASA team operating the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope a strange feature has been spotted in the atmosphere of a "hot Jupiter" exoplanet.

As an exoplanet orbits its parent star, one would expect the star-facing side of the world to be the hottest. Hot Jupiters live up to their name as they orbit so close to their stars that their gaseous atmospheres can reach scorching temperatures of a thousand degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) or more.

When watching the gas giant exoplanet Andromedae b, Spitzer scientists noticed something awry: the location of maximum temperature isn't on the star-facing side of the exoplanet. The region where it is hottest is offset. Slight temperature maximum offsets have been seen before on other exoplanets, explained by the possibility of fierce winds ripping around the world, carrying the high temperature atmosphere away from the star-facing side.

However, Andromedae b's warmest region is located a whopping 80 degrees away from the star-facing side of the world. This throws the "strong wind" theory into doubt, exoplanet models cannot explain this kind of offset.

more

http://news.discovery.com/space/mysterious-hot-spot-seen-on-distant-exoplanet.html

what did it originally say? :D