This planet has an asymmetric atmosphere. “It's really amazing”

WASP-107b is an extrasolar planet, more than 200 light-years away from us. It is similar in size to Jupiter, but weighs 10 times less than Jupiter.

Last year's observations of the planet by the James Webb Space Telescope revealed the presence of water vapor and sulfur dioxide in its atmosphere. This second element was a surprise to researchers because the object's models did not indicate its presence. Interestingly, clouds were also discovered that were suspected to appear on other extrasolar planets, but scientists had not previously had the opportunity to examine their composition.

New data obtained by the Webb telescope allowed for an even closer look at WASP-107b.

Scientists have discovered an asymmetry in its atmosphere. It concerns differences in parameters such as temperature and cloud cover. These discrepancies occur in the eastern and western hemispheres. As indicated, this is of key importance for the climate, dynamic processes occurring in the atmosphere and weather phenomena. This is one of the first times such details have been observed on a planet outside the solar system.

– The obtained images tell us a lot about gases in the exoplanet's atmosphere, clouds, atmospheric structure, chemistry and how everything changes under the influence of different amounts of sunlight – explains one of the researchers from the University of Arizona, Professor Matthew Murphy.

As the author of the study notes, “usually our observational techniques do not work so well for these intermediate planets.” – So we had a lot of fascinating, open questions that we can finally start to answer. For example, some of our models told us that a planet like WASP-107b should not have such an asymmetry, so we are already learning something new, he says. – We don't have a similar planet in our own solar system. It is unique even among exoplanets, he adds.

Importantly, WASP-107b is facing the same side towards the star at all times. – This is the first time when an east-west asymmetry could be noticed against the background of a star during the transit of a planet – emphasizes Prof. Murphy. – I believe that the observations carried out with… space They have many advantages over ground-based research, he adds.

– This is really the first time we have directly seen this type of asymmetry using transmission spectroscopy from space. This method is the main way to study the composition of exoplanet atmospheres. It's really amazing – comments prof. Thomas Beatty, co-author of the discovery.

– We cannot look at exoplanets directly, much less find out what is happening on one side in relation to the other. For the first time, we are able to gain local insight into what is happening in the atmosphere of an exoplanet – emphasizes Prof. Murphy.

Scientists are working on the observational data they have collected to look in more detail at what is happening to the exoplanet and understand what is causing the asymmetry.

The unusual planet was described in the magazine “Nature Astronomy”.