For the first time in the history of astronomy, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope is delivering us a weather report from outside our solar system. The weather observed — volatile with a chance of eccentric — is on planet HD 80606b, which is 190 light years away, meaning we’re receiving the report from 190 years ago. The planet, discovered by Dominique Naef of the Geneva Observatory, Switzerland in 2001, is gaseous, similar to Jupiter. HD 80606b is one half of a binary star system, though the stars are more than arm-length from each other — the twins are separated by a distance close to that between our Sun and Saturn, times 125.
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Computer-generated images charting the development of sever weather patterns on HD 80606b. NASA image.
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In fact, distance isn’t the only thing that’s bigger outside of our solar system: HD 80606b is about four times larger than Jupiter (our largest planet by a long-shot) and its weather is much crazier. To understand the parallels, consider that Jupiter’s biggest storm is ongoing, known as The Great Red Spot, an anticyclonic storm that began at least two centuries ago, and makes a full counter-clockwise rotation in about six days. The weather conditions on HD 80606b change everyВ six hours.В
Here’s how it happens: HD 80606b takes about 111 days to make a complete elliptical orbit, so its year is 2/3 shorter than an Earth year, while its days are 34 hours long. If you’re confused, you’re not alone: according to NASA, it has the most unusual orbit ever recorded. As it nears its sun-like star, the orbit speeds up, and its proximity to the star changes from 2.8 to 78 million miles away. This quick shift results in temperature changes from 980 to 2,240 degrees Fahrenheit, all in a six-hour period.В
The Spitzer Telescope, responsible for gathering this data, is named afterВ Lyman Strong Spitzer, Jr., the man behind the Hubble Space Telescope and the race to the Moon.