Scientists Scan Mysterious Planet as It Drifts Through Space

The unevenness of the state of each cloud layer is thought to be the reason why the brightness of SIMP 0136 changes as it rotates. It’s easy to understand if you think of Jupiter, which as a gas giant planet likely has a similar structure and chemical composition.

Or for another way to picture this, try imagining the surface of the Earth, says Philip Muirhead of Boston University, a coauthor of a new paper outlining these findings about SIMP 0136. “As the Earth rotates, when the ocean comes into view, you will observe stronger blue colors, and when you observe stronger brown or green colors, it means that continents, forest areas, et cetera come into view,” he explains.

An image of an aurora observed on Jupiter, which could have a similar composition to SIMP 0136.

PHOTOGRAPH: NASA/ESA/J. NICHOLS (UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER); ACKNOWLEDGMENT: A. SIMON (NASA/GSFC)/THE OPAL TEAM

In addition, the infrared light shown by the blue lines in the figure above comes from a high layer of SIMP 0136’s atmosphere, far above its cloud layers.

It is thought that the brightness of SIMP 0136, caused by these differences in infrared radiation, changes as it rotates because the temperature, like the cloud composition, varies from place to place on the planet. In addition, the researchers noticed hot spots where the planet’s infrared light was particularly bright. They believe that these may be caused by auroras, the existence of which has already been confirmed by radio wave observations.

However, it is difficult to explain all the changes in infrared brightness just by cloud and temperature variations. For this reason, the research team points out that there may be areas in SIMP 0136’s atmosphere where carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are concentrated, and that these areas may also affect the infrared brightness as the planet rotates.

This story originally appeared on WIRED Japan and has been translated from Japanese.