Category 5 hurricanes on Earth are one thing, the extremely strong winds on exoplanet HD 189733b – located in the constellation Vulpecula, also known as the ‘little fox’, 370-trillion-miles (600 trillion km) from Earth, are another. Not just any winds, gusts up to 5,400mph have been detected around the planet. University of Warwick researchers discovered that the wind speed is 20-times greater than the fastest ever known on Earth, at 1.2 miles per second (2km per second). Continue reading for another video and more information.
“At more than 10 per cent larger than Jupiter, but 180 times closer to its star, the exoplanet has an average temperature of 1800°C (3272°F). It also has an extremely turbulent atmosphere that is almost certainly inhospitable to life. The exoplanet is popular with astronomers because of its size and its relative closeness to our solar system. Past research has shown that the day side of the planet would appear a bright shade of blue to the human eye, probably due to clouds of silicate particles high in its atmosphere,” reports Mail Online.
