Astronomers have used four massive telescopes in Chile to study a planet’s atmosphere beyond our solar system, discovering extreme weather unlike anything found on Earth or other planets in the solar system. The research team mapped the structure of Tylos’ atmosphere for the first time and found hurricane-force winds carrying iron and titanium.
Tylos is a “hot Jupiter” gas giant planet located 900 light-years away from Earth. It orbits its host star very close, taking just 30 hours to complete one rotation. This unique orbit creates extreme temperature differences between the day and night sides of the planet. The resulting weather system produces vicious winds that can be compared to nothing in our solar system.
Researchers used the ESPRESSO instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope to study Tylos’ atmosphere during a full transit across its star. They detected iron, sodium, hydrogen, and titanium in the light passing through the planet’s atmosphere. By analyzing these chemical signatures, they created detailed maps of the winds in three layers of the planet’s atmosphere.
This discovery challenges our understanding of weather patterns on planets and highlights the potential for studying exoplanet atmospheres with ground-based telescopes. New telescopes like ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope and the Giant Magellan Telescope will help scientists uncover more secrets about these distant worlds, as they are said to be on the verge of discovering incredible things about them.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2025/02/19/welcome-to-tylos-a-planet-out-of-science-fiction-scientists-say