The most recent observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have uncovered an incredible phenomenon on one of the giant gas planets orbiting outside of our solar system. The planet, dubbed HD 80606b, is capable of extreme temperature change in a matter of hours.

 

To be more specific, the infrared observations revealed that the planet is capable of reaching 1,500 Kelvin from 800 in just six hours. The phenomenon was captured just as the planet temporarily disappeared from sight behind the star it is orbiting, allowing scientists to establish its initial and final temperatures.

 

The conclusion was that the air near the planet’s surface is quickly absorbing and losing heat, a phenomenon that has never been captured on an exoplanet.

 

The observations were possible thanks to the planet’s eccentric orbit: the planet rotates around its own axis every 34 hours, unlike the “hot Jupiter planets” that have one side always facing the star it is orbiting.

 

HD 80606b completes its journey around its star in 111 days, however, astronomers explained that it spends most of this time at farther distances.

 

Astronomer Greg Laughlin of the Lick Observatory, University of California at Santa Cruz, whose observations appear this week in Nature, explained: If we could float above the clouds of this planet, you’d see its sun growing larger and larger at faster and faster rates, increasing in brightness by almost a factor of 1,000.

 

The observations also raise another question, this time on a phenomenon that could be closer to our reach: what would happen if Jupiter, another gas giant, would get very close to the sun?