A team of astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has mapped temperature variations over the surface of the giant gas planet HD 189733b, revealing it is likely being whipped by roaring winds. “We have mapped the temperature variations with longitude across the entire surface of the planet that is so far away its light takes 60 years to reach us,” said Heather Knutson of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
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Space Telescope Maps Reveal Blasting Winds, Hellish Heat
Posted by: Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2007 08:27 AMA team of astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has mapped temperature variations over the surface of the giant gas planet HD 189733b, revealing it is likely being whipped by roaring winds. “We have mapped the temperature variations with longitude across the entire surface of the planet that is so far away its light takes 60 years to reach us,” said Heather Knutson of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.