spacetoday.net: Exoplanet suffers from extreme heating

Posted: Fri, Jan 30, 2009, 6:45 AM ET (1145 GMT)
HD80606b computer model (UCSC)

An extrasolar planet in a highly eccentric orbit undergoes a sudden temperature increase, warming by 700 degrees in a matter of hours, scientists said this week. HD80606b, a gas giant roughly four times the mass of Jupiter, orbits a star 200 light-years from the Earth in an orbit that takes it much closer to the star than Mercury orbits the Earth. Observations of the star and planet by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that as the planet approaches close to the star. its temperature increases from 800 to 1,500 degrees Kelvin. This sudden heating likely generates very high speed winds and storms in the planet's upper atmosphere, according to computer models. The temperature change was directly measured by Spitzer by subtracting out the infrared light from the star alone from observations when the planet was hidden behind the star. The results of the observations were reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.