Storyful
Space Telescope Captures Striking Visuals of ‘Massive Cyclones’ on Exoplanet
The European Space Agency (ESA) released a video on Saturday, January 6, of “massive cyclones” being created and destroyed in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-121 b.The video was created by combining observations of the exoplanet, which were collected using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in the years of 2016, 2018 and 2019.WASP-121 b, also known as Tylos, was described by the ESA as a hot Jupiter, a type of exoplanet with no direct solar system analogue. Hot Jupiters are inflated gas giants orbiting very close to their parent stars, and often performing a complete orbit in a matter of a few days.The research team observing Tylos discovered that the cyclones visible in the video were repeatedly created and destroyed as a result of the “huge temperature difference” between the side of the planet facing its star, and the dark side, the ESA said. Credit: ESA via Storyful