Animation of the supersonic jetstream wind on gas giant WASP-127b

This animation shows supersonic jet winds pummeling the equator of the giant exoplanet WASP-127b, located about 520 light-years from Earth. With speeds up to 9 km per second (almost 33 000 km/h), it is the fastest jetstream of its kind ever measured in the Universe.

Astronomers mapped the weather of WASP-127b using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). By measuring how the light of the host star travels through the planet's upper atmosphere, they traced its composition, which confirmed water vapour and carbon-monoxide molecules in the atmosphere. When tracking the speed of this material, the astronomers observed a double peak, indicating that one side of the atmosphere is moving towards us and the other away from us, which means that there is a powerful wind current going around the planet.