Researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have detected a stratosphere and temperature inversion in the atmosphere of a planet several times the mass of Jupiter, called WASP-33b.
Earth’s stratosphere sits above the troposphere, the turbulent, active-weather region that reaches from the ground to the altitude where nearly all clouds top out. In the troposphere, the temperature is warmer at the bottom — ground level — and cools down at higher altitudes.
The stratosphere is just the opposite: There, the temperature rises at higher altitudes. This is called a temperature inversion, and it happens because ozone in the stratosphere absorbs some of the sun’s radiation, preventing it from reaching the surface and warming this layer of the atmosphere.
Similar temperature inversions occur in the stratospheres of other planets in our solar system, such as Jupiter and Saturn.
But WASP-33b is so close to its star that its atmosphere is a scathing 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and its atmosphere is so hot the planet might actually have titanium oxide rain.
Top image: Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, scientists detected a stratosphere on the planet WASP-33b. A stratosphere occurs when molecules in the atmosphere absorb ultraviolet and visible light from the star. This absorption warms the stratosphere and acts as a kind of sunscreen layer for the planet below.
WASP-33bs stratosphere was detected by measuring the drop in light as the planet passed behind its star (top). Temperatures in the low stratosphere rise because of molecules absorbing radiation from the star (right). Without a stratosphere, temperatures would cool down at higher altitudes (left).
Filed under: ExoPlanets
Never realized what wonderful things were going on with NASA. Thank you for your research. What an incredible education.
Yes, it’s amazing what we’re learning about the cosmos and we’ll know so much more in a few years when the James Webb space telescope is launched.