When Oscar Wilde said that “talking about the weather is the last resort for fiction”, he was unaware of some of the harshest climates on other planets and moons far from Earth.
Since the first exoplanet was discovered in 1992, more than 4,000 planets have been found orbiting stars other than us.
The constant search for exoplanets involves trying to determine what their atmospheres are made of, especially answering the question of the possibility of life there.
In this relentless search for the existence of life, astronomers have discovered a variety of possible worlds.
The tropical giant WASP-76b (M. Cornmiser – European Southern Laboratory)There are 4 examples of strange climatic conditions in astronomical bodies to show the diversity of the atmospheres of planets outside the solar system. Report For Conversation Website:
1. Iron rain on the planet (WASP-76b)
Planet (WASP-76b) is a large hot exoplanet discovered in 2013, and the surface of this monster planet – twice the size of Jupiter – has a temperature of about 2,200 degrees Celsius.
This means that many solids on Earth will melt and evaporate in WASP-76b.
And as shown A study Popularly released in 2020, these products include iron.
On the day side of the planet – facing its star – this iron turns into a rising gas in the atmosphere and flows towards the dark, night side that does not face the star.
When this gas reaches the night side of the iron planet – where the temperature is cold – the iron again condenses into a liquid and falls toward the surface.
This is the current example of a planet with a certain temperature that allows iron to rain at night.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft (NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory – California Institute of Technology) shows a lake view of Saturn’s moon at Titan’s North Pole.2. Methane lakes on Titan
Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, which is very interesting because it has a large atmosphere, which is rare for a moon orbiting a planet.
The moon has a surface in which fluid flows like rivers on earth.
Unlike Earth, this liquid is not water, but a mixture of different hydrocarbons.
On Earth we use these chemicals (ethane and methane) for fuel, but as the weather on Titan gets colder these chemicals form lakes from liquids.
Glacier volcanoes release these hydrocarbons into the atmosphere from time to time as gases that form clouds and then dissolve to form rain.
This rain is not similar to the regular rain we see on the ground because it rains only 0.1% of the time, with large drops (estimated at about one centimeter) and falling 5 times slower, with less gravity and an increase in clouds.
Before (left) and (right) dust storms in front of Mars (NASA / JBL – Caltech)3. Wind on Mars
Mars has a completely different climate than Earth, mainly because of how dry the planet is and how thin its atmosphere is.
Without a large magnetic field, the Martian atmosphere would be open to the Sun’s magnetic field, removing the upper atmosphere. This left a thin atmosphere that was mostly carbon dioxide.
Not only is NASA’s “intelligent” helicopter the first aircraft to explore Mars, but its rotor blades provide the lowest lift capability in the thin atmosphere, which is about 2% of the Earth’s atmosphere.
To cope with this thin atmosphere, the helicopter was given a dual set of large blades that could rotate at about 2,500 revolutions per minute, which is almost equal to the speed of the drone’s rotation, but much faster than a private helicopter.
Although the Martian atmosphere is thin, it will certainly not be quiet. At an average speed of 30 km / h the wind speed is sufficient to move the surface material around it.
The possibility of high-velocity sand and dust storms may seem like a major issue for the planet’s exploration, but the pressure is low because the atmosphere is thin. Mars is also famous for having large dust storms that obscure surface view and last for weeks at a time.
The graphic shows what “shapes” look like in Jupiter’s atmosphere (NASA / JBL-Caltech).4. Lightning Orcs and Elves on Jupiter
In 1979, Voyager 1 flew near Jupiter and experienced lightning strikes. Then, in 2016, Juno’s mission took a deep look at the thunderstorms on Thursday.
On Earth, most lightning is concentrated near the equator, but on Jupiter the stability of the atmosphere means that lightning occurs mainly near the polar regions.
Instead of an earth-based method of generating lightning, super-cold water droplets collide with ice, and on Thursdays, ammonia is charged in snowballs.
Jupiter has fewer lightning strikes known as Goblins and Elves. Orcs are made of lightning, which rises from the clouds into the upper atmosphere and produces short-lived red light, while elves form rings, which form when lightning reaches the charged part of the atmosphere (the ionosphere).
It was predicted in 1921, but was not photographed on Earth until 1989, mainly due to storm clouds in orbit.
Although exoplanets have a variety of climatic possibilities, the largest atmosphere is those that are observed in sufficient detail to determine what their atmospheres are made of, if they first contain an atmosphere.
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