Download Video
Video Information
Subscribe to Series
Weird Warm Spot on Exoplanet (Narrated)
This animation illustrates an unexpected warm spot on the surface of a gaseous exoplanet. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered that the hottest part of the planet, shown here as bright, orange patches on the surface, is not directly under the glare of its star but over to the side.
The planet -- a hot, gaseous orb named upsilon Andromedae b -- whips around its star every 4.6 days. Its relative size has been scaled up a bit here for clarity. Because the planet is so close, it is tidally locked, meaning that one side is eternally bombarded by the star's radiation. As can be seen in the animation, the side of the planet facing the star is lit up, while the other side lives in the darkness. The perspective drawn here starts from overhead, and then changes to Earth's point of view; in other words, in the second part of the animation, Earth and the Spitzer telescope are located in the direction of the viewer.
Spitzer observed the heat from the star system with its infrared detectors. It measured the infrared light coming from the star and planet, as the planet circled around. The oscillations in this light -- called a light curve -- occur as the planet swings around: when the hottest part of the planet faces us, the total light goes up; when the coolest part faces us, the total light goes down.
Spitzer found that, in contrast to what might be expected, this planet's hot spot is not facing the sun. Instead, it is over 80 degrees to the side, at about the day-night terminator line, or the point where the light and dark sides of the planet meet.
This animation ends by showing the corresponding Spitzer data. The light curve reveals the location of the planet's hot spot
Related Media
 |
News Release Astronomers Find Weird, Warm Spot on an Exoplanet ssc2010-08 |
 |
Image How to Find a Planetary Hot Spot ssc2010-08a |
|
Image Planetary Hot Spot Not Under the Glare of Star ssc2010-08b |
 |
Video Weird Warm Spot on Exoplanet ssc2010-08v1 |
 |
Video Weird Warm Spot on Exoplanet (Narrated) ssc2010-08v2 |
Most Popular Videos
Spitzer Podcasts
Browse Videos in Science Animations
Page
1
of
1
03.20.14 Panning Through the Milky WayThis video shows a continually looping view of the Spitzer Space Telescope's new infrared view of our Milky Way Galaxy. |
07.18.12 Flying Out to GJ 436 and its PlanetsStarting from Earth, we quickly zoom out of the solar system into our sun's local neighborhood, populated by the clos... |
05.08.12 Super Earth Reveals Itself to Spitzer (Narrated)NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has, for the first time, captured the light emanating from a distant super Earth, a pl... |
05.08.12 Super Earth Reveals Itself to SpitzerNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has, for the first time, captured the light emanating from a distant super Earth, a pl... |
10.19.10 Weird Warm Spot on ExoplanetThis animation illustrates an unexpected warm spot on the surface of a gaseous exoplanet. NASA's Spitzer Space Telesc... |
10.19.10 Weird Warm Spot on Exoplanet (Narrated)This animation illustrates an unexpected warm spot on the surface of a gaseous exoplanet. NASA's Spitzer Space Telesc... |
10.06.09 Saturn Family TourThis video showcases the Saturnian system, beginning with the planet itself and panning out to its newest addition --... |
08.10.09 Planetary Demolition DerbyThis artist's animation shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the siz... |
06.04.09 Tour of Planet with Extreme Temperature SwingsThis animation shows a computer simulation of the planet HD 80606b from an observer located at a point in space lying... |
06.04.09 Silicate Crystal Formation in the Disk of an Erupting StarThis artist's animation illustrates how silicate crystals like those found in comets can be created by an outburst fr... |
07.15.08 Zooming in on Second-Brightest Star in Milky WayThis movie zooms in to reveal the "Peony nebula" star -- the new second-brightest star in the Milky Way, discovered i... |
05.05.08 Dissecting a Light EchoThis animation illustrates how a light echo works, and how an optical illusion of material moving outward is created.... |
05.05.08 Cauldron of LightIn this animation, a seething cauldron of light appears to bubble and ooze around the remains of a giant star that as... |
11.29.07 Pulling Back the Curtain of DustThis artist's animation begins by showing a dark and dusty corner of space where little visible light can escape. The... |
05.09.07 Blacker than BlackThis artist's animation illustrates the hottest planet yet observed in the universe. The scorching ball of gas, a "ho... |
05.09.07 Mapping Exotic WorldsThis animation shows the first-ever map of the surface of an exoplanet, or a planet beyond our solar system. The map,... |
05.09.07 How to Map a Very Faraway PlanetScientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope were able to create the first-ever map of the surface of a planet bey... |
04.18.07 Highway to the Danger Zone"The further on the edge, the hotter the intensity," sings Kenny Loggins in "Danger Zone," a song made famous by the ... |
04.18.07 Infrared RoseThis movie begins by showing an optical image of the Rosette nebula, a turbulent star-forming region located 5,000 li... |
03.29.07 Two Suns Raise Family of Planetary BodiesThis artist's animation depicts a faraway solar system like our own -- except for one big difference. Planets and ast... |
02.21.07 Hot, Dry, and Cloudy (Artist Concept)This artist's concept animation shows a cloudy Jupiter-like planet that orbits very close to its fiery hot star. NASA... |
12.18.06 Stars Spring Up Out of the DarknessThis artist's animation illustrates the universe's early years, from its explosive formation to its dark ages to its ... |
11.07.06 Hubble-Spitzer OrionThis video cycles between the Hubble view, the Spitzer view, and the combined Hubble-Spitzer view of the Orion Nebula. |
11.07.06 Making a Great Observatories CompositeThis video shows how a Hubble image and a Spitzer image of the Orion Nebula were combined to create a new, multi-wave... |
10.30.06 Who Ya Gonna Call?NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is a galactic ghost buster, spotting hidden massive stars and other monsters lurking i... |
10.26.06 Order Amidst Chaos of Star's ExplosionThis artist's animation shows the explosion of a massive star, the remains of which are named Cassiopeia A. NASA's Sp... |
10.12.06 Fire and Ice Planet (without data plot)This artist's animation shows a blistering world revolving around its nearby "sun." NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Tel... |
10.12.06 Fire and Ice PlanetThis artist's animation shows a blistering world revolving around its nearby "sun." NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Tel... |
08.14.06 Journey to OrionThis movie begins with a visible view of the famous Orion constellation. Superimposed on the area near Orion's sword ... |
07.24.06 Stars Can't Spin Out of ControlThis artist's animation demonstrates how a dusty planet-forming disk can slow down a whirling young star, essentially... |
06.05.06 Fade to RedThis animation shows the Andromeda galaxy, first as seen in visible light by the National Optical Astronomy Observato... |
04.05.06 Birth of 'Phoenix' Planets?This artist's animation depicts the explosive death of a massive star, followed by the creation of a disk made up of ... |
03.16.06 Cigar Galaxy up in SmokeThis movie compares a visible-light view of the "Cigar galaxy" to an infrared view from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescop... |
06.09.05 The Cry of Cassiopeia AThis animation begins with a stunning false-color picture of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. It is made up of ima... |
06.02.05 Space Eyes See Comet Tempel 1This artist's concept of Tempel 1 illustrates the comet's shape, reflectivity, rotation rate and surface temperature,... |
05.30.05 Carina in ContextThis animation starts with an image of a larger but lower resolution image of the Carina Nebula from the Midcourse Sp... |
05.30.05 Pillars Behind the DustThe movie begins with a visible-light picture of the southern region of our Milky Way galaxy then slowly zooms into t... |
05.04.05 A More Spectacular SombreroThis movie shifts from the well-known visible-light picture of Messier 104 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to inf... |
04.20.05 Band of RubbleThis artist's animation illustrates a massive asteroid belt in orbit around a star the same age and size as our Sun. ... |
04.20.05 Sunset on an Alien WorldThis artist's animation illustrates what the night sky might look like from a hypothetical alien planet in a star sys... |
03.22.05 Distant Planet Flaunts its LightThis artist's animation shows a close-up view of a distant giant planet passing behind its star as a regular part of ... |
03.22.05 How to Measure a Planetary EclipseThis artist's animation shows a close-up view of a distant giant planet passing behind its star as a regular part of ... |
03.22.05 A Planet in a Different LightThis artist's animation shows first what a fiery hot star and its close-knit planetary companion might look like clos... |
03.01.05 Invisible Galaxies Come to LifeThis artist's animation demonstrates that an invisible galaxy shrouded in dust can become glaringly bright when viewe... |
02.11.05 Spitzer's Delicate Ring FlowerNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope finds a delicate flower in the Ring Nebula, as shown in this animation. The outer shel... |
02.07.05 Birth of an Unusual Planetary SystemThis artist's animation shows a brown dwarf surrounded by a swirling disk of planet-building dust. NASA's Spitzer Spa... |
01.12.05 Trifid's Shifting SidesThis movie shifts from the well-known visible-light picture of the glowing Trifid Nebula to infrared views from NASA'... |
12.09.04 The Evolution of a Planet-Forming DiskThis animation shows the evolution of a planet-forming disk around a star. Initially, the young disk is bright and th... |
12.09.04 A Distant Solar SystemThis animation portrays an artist's concept of a distant hypothetical solar system, about the same age as our own. It... |
11.09.04 Icy Dawn of a Newborn StarIn this animation, we observe what a young star with a circumstellar disc would look like when viewed from different ... |
10.18.04 Swirling Rings of DustThis animation depicts colliding rocky bodies in an early planetary system. Such collisions form the basis of the pla... |
10.18.04 When Worlds CollideThis animation illustrates a massive collision between rocky, embryonic planets as big as mountain ranges. Such colli... |
10.12.04 Galactic Fossil Revealed in Infrared LightThis animation demonstrates the power of infrared light to see what visible light cannot -- a newfound bundle of star... |
10.07.04 Visible-Infrared WhirlpoolThis animation transitions from the more familiar visible light image of the "Whirlpool Galaxy" to the dramatic new v... |
10.06.04 Supernova ExplosionThis animation of a supernova explosion demonstrates what happens when a massive star explodes and creates a shell of... |
10.06.04 Kepler's Supernova Remnant - Zoom-InThis "zoom" starts in the Scorpius constellation and pushes through deeper and narrower telescopic fields to at last ... |
10.06.04 Kepler's Supernova Remnant - Composite ImageThe composite view of the supernova splits into its three components: blue-green for Chandra, yellow for Hubble, and ... |
08.09.04 Spitzer Discovers Hidden RingThis animation transitions from a visible light image of the planetary nebula called NGC 246 to Spitzer's new infrare... |
06.01.04 Missing Host Galaxies Found in Infrared - 2In a collaborative effort between NASA's three Great Observatories, astronomers have solved a cosmic mystery by ident... |
06.01.04 Missing Host Galaxies Found in Infrared - 1In a collaborative effort between NASA's three Great Observatories, astronomers have solved a cosmic mystery by ident... |
06.01.04 The Making of a Galactic ParallelogramIn this animation, the elliptical galaxy Centaurus A is seen through the eyes of three different telescopes. Initiall... |
05.27.04 Spitzer Sheds Infrared Light on Hundreds of Newborn StarsObservations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal hundreds of newly forming stars in the nebula RCW49, located ... |
05.27.04 Icy Organics in Planet-Forming DisksUsing the Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers are probing the chemistry of circumstellar disks, the dusty discs that... |
05.27.04 Forming a Planetary GapAstronomers are using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to probe the structures of circumstellar disks, the dusty disks ... |
04.14.04 Star Formation in the DR21 RegionObservations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal a turbulent nest of giant newborn stars too shrouded in dust ... |
03.15.04 Orbit of SednaThis animation shows the location of the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," in relation to the rest... |
03.08.04 Star Formation in Henize 206Starting with a wide view of the environment surrounding the Henize 206 star formation region, the animation moves in... |
03.08.04 Triggered Star FormationThis animation illustrates the process of triggered star formation. First, a massive star in its final death throes e... |
01.13.04 The Tarantula NebulaNASA's new Spitzer Space Telescope has captured in stunning detail the spidery filaments and newborn stars of the Tar... |
12.18.03 Messier 81This 22-second animation uses an "infrared spotlight" to highlight differences between a visible-light image of Messi... |
12.18.03 Herbig-Haro 46/47This 18-second animation zooms in on Herbig-Haro 46/47 and its embedded protostar with molecular outflows. Spitzer/IR... |
12.18.03 Dark Globule in IC 1396This 22-second animation shows how our view of a dark globule in IC 1396 changes as we move from visible light throug... |
03.18.03 Model Dust RingA 12-second animation shows how ansae are created, by taking a model dust ring and tilting it from a face-on orientat... |
