Nearby alien planet has ‘weather patterns like Earth’ but it hides deadly secret

AN ALIEN planet with traces of water and “complex weather patterns like Earth” might be seen like a good contender for a Planet B.

But it would be impossible for us humans to survive there.

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Planet WASP-127b is home to extremely powerful, supersonic winds – which scientists have said is the fastest jetstream in the known universe in a new study.

Instead of heading to the equator for a good tan, astro-tourists would be met with nearly 33,000km/h winds.

The recent discovery was made using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile, which is designed to provide weather insights on distant worlds.

“Part of the atmosphere of this planet is moving towards us at a high velocity while another part is moving away from us at the same speed,” said Lisa Nortmann, a scientist at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and lead author of the study.

“This signal shows us that there is a very fast, supersonic, jet wind around the planet’s equator.”

These violent gales move at nearly six times the speed at which the planet rotates – a characteristic that has never been seen before, according to Nortmann.

Neptune has the fastest wind in our Solar System – but the speeds are just a fraction of the tempests that rage on WASP-127b, moving at 1800km/h.

WASP-127b is a gas giant roughly 500 light-years from Earth – which is relatively close all things considered.

For example, the most distance cosmic object humans have ever found is galaxy MACS0647-D, which is 13.4billion light-years away.

Researchers were also able to confirm the presence of water vapour and carbon monoxide on the planet.

It is slightly larger than Jupiter, but has a fraction of its mass – making it “puffy”, according to the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Though, like Earth, its poles are colder and its morning side is warmer than its evening side.

Fei Yan, a co-author of the study and a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, added: “This shows that the planet has complex weather patterns just like Earth and other planets of our own System.”

Researchers are just scratching the surface when it comes to exploring weather patterns on exoplanets, after decades of only being able to measure the mass and radius of worlds outside our Solar System.

ESO’s aptly named Extremely Large Telescope, which is under construction in Chile, alongside its ANDES instruments, will allow astronomers an even closer look at faraway planets.

Nortmann added: “This means that we can likely resolve even finer details of the wind patterns and expand this research to smaller, rocky planets.”

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