NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Watched a Planet Get Absolutely Scorched

There is an exoplanet out in space that is a true nightmare. It orbits its sun once every 111 days, and its weird elliptical orbit brings it precariously close to its host sun, resulting in temperature swings of up to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, effectively roasting the planet every time it orbits the star. 

Say hello to HD 80606 b, an exoplanet that is about four times the size of Jupiter and arguably one of the scariest planets in the universe. This planet is known as a Hot Jupiter, which is a nickname for gas planets like Jupiter that are very close to their host star, thereby making the planet extraordinarily hot. 

HD 80606 b has been the subject of study via NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope for its interesting properties, a responsibility it took over from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The 111-day orbit isn’t anything to write home about, as some Hot Jupiters orbit their planet in just a couple of days or weeks. What makes HD 80606 b special is the highly irregular elliptical orbit that brings it shockingly close to its star before launching it back out into space.

The idea is that this planet’s unusual orbit subjects it to property changes that would take a lot longer to observe on other exoplanets, and NASA can use the data to apply what it finds to other Hot Jupiter planets in the greater universe. 

“Spitzer did amazing work on this exoplanet, and now Webb is building on that legacy by enabling us to drill down to distinguish specific chemical signatures like methane and carbon dioxide, which is just amazing progress,” study co-author Ryan Challener said in a blog post. “There’s so much to learn from this one dataset here — we really are just getting started deciphering what Webb has to tell us.” 

The roasted exoplanet

The temperature fluctuations on HD 80606 b are so big that NASA nicknamed it the “roasted exoplanet” and even made a printable movie poster depicting the hellish conditions the planet experiences over the course of its orbit. Due to the extreme temperature fluctuations, the planet experiences truly bizarre and extreme weather, which is what the James Webb Space Telescope is observing and scientists are studying. 

“Observing a planet like HD 80606 b is actually very efficient because its unusual orbit, with the corresponding swings in temperature and chemical composition, allow us to gather data under varying conditions in just hours and apply those findings to other hot Jupiters or more conventional exoplanets,” Laura C. Mayorga, an exoplanet astronomer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a blog post.

The planet’s weather includes supersonic winds, shockwave storms that fly around the planet at the speed of sound and surface temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The atmosphere quite literally boils during this time, which drives chemical changes and cloud evolution that the James Webb Space Telescope can observe in real time.