The Wild Temperature Swings of an Exoplanet

Hidden Universe Video • March 28th, 2016 • sig16-007v1

The exoplanet HD80606 b spends most of its time far from its star, but every 111 days it swings in feverishly close. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope measured the planet's extreme temperature swings using infrared light. This allowed astronomers to simulate its atmosphere.

Video Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MIT/Principia College