The beautiful display of light in the sky, such as the glowing halo around the moon and the bright spots beside the sun, is not just a terrestrial wonder. A similar dazzling effect could also occur on planets a year later, according to new research.
In a study published in a letter to the Astrophysics Journal of July 21, Cornell University scientists suggest that the WASP-17B, a gas giant, about 1,300 light-years from Earth, can host the sparkling optical effects of its atmosphere. Discovered in 2009, the WASP-17B is what scientists call “Hot Jupiter.” As a result, the world will experience intense heat and hurricane winds, reaching 10,000 miles per hour (16,000 kilometers per hour).
Researchers say these intense winds may be strong enough to align small quartz crystals suspended in the planet’s upper atmosphere. This is a halo and rainbow pillar of light, scattering solar lights, similar to how ice crystals line up in the Earth’s atmosphere to create a “sun dog.”
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“If you can take a photo of the WASP-17B at optical wavelengths and resolve the planetary disc, you can see the characteristics of these types of sanddog,” said Nicole Lewis, an associate professor of astronomy at Cornell University in New York and co-author of the new paper.
The crystals responsible for these displays are made up of quartz, the same mineral commonly found in sand and gemstones. They are very few. Approximately 10,000 can fit perfectly with the width of human hair. Under the force of high-speed winds, these particles can be mechanically aligned, like small boats floating in layers down the river. Elijah Mullens said he is a graduate student in the university’s astronomical and space science department who led the new research.
The concept of mechanical alignment in which particles are directed themselves in response to aerodynamic responses was first proposed in 1952 by Cornell astronomer Tommy Gold, explaining how interstellar dust particles align with the flow of gas. While new theories have replaced the model for cosmic dust, research authors Mullens and Lewis argue that it could still apply to extreme conditions of the atmosphere of an exoplanet.
Related: “A totally new phenomenon”: Astronomers discover planets that constantly explode stars
Where the JWST eyes are inside
Although telescopes cannot directly image these phenomena with the WASP-17B due to their vast distances, scientists can infer their existence by studying the planet’s atmosphere with a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which observes the universe in infrared. In 2023, Lewis and Mullens were part of a team that used JWST to identify high-altitude cloud quartz nanocrystals in the WASP-17B.
“We didn’t expect to see quartz crystals in a hot Jupiter atmosphere,” Lewis said in a statement.
To further explore, the researchers have built detailed models that simulate how various crystals, including quartz, enstite and forsterite, reflect or transmit light according to their orientation. Their results showed that even slight changes in particle orientation could lead to significant differences in the optical signals that JWST could detect.
“When we started to see the atmosphere of the planet, especially these hot Jupiter, we found that 10,000 miles of winds per hour in these very dense atmospheres, we certainly found that grains were all there,” Lewis said in a statement.
Even if the crystals are not perfectly aligned with the wind, they can still point themselves vertically or be influenced by electric fields, which can produce clear visual effects when interacting with starlight.
According to the statement, Mullens will continue to investigate atmospheric particle alignment of the WASP-17B through its newly approved JWST observation program.
“Aside from being clean, these effects can tell us how crystals interact in the atmosphere. They are really informative,” he said in a statement.
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