The jet winds are moving at nearly six times the speed of the exoplanet’s rotation.
The farthest planet from the Sun, Neptune, is the windiest place in the solar system, with winds that whip through at speeds reaching more than 0.3 miles per second (0.5 kilometers per second). That’s a relatively pleasant wind speed compared to a giant, puffy planet located around 500 lightyears away from Earth.
Supersonic winds on this exoplanet, designated WASP-127b, travel at a mind-bending 5.5 miles per second (9 kilometers per second). The speed of sound on Earth is roughly 0.21 miles per second (0.34 km/sec), making these winds supersonic by our terrestrial standards. The recently discovered extraterrestrial jet stream is the fastest ever measured on a planet, providing new insight into extreme weather that pummel other worlds.
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