WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:07.719 Welcome to Bedtime Astronomy. Explore the wonders of the cosmos 2 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:12.279 with our soothing Bedtime Astronomie podcast. Each episode offers a 3 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:16.320 gentle journey through the stars, planets, and beyond, perfect for 4 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:20.239 unwinding after a long day. Let's travel through the mysteries 5 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:22.440 of the universe as you drift off into a peaceful 6 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:23.800 slumber under the night sky. 7 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:29.359 I want you to take a second and picture the 8 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:32.359 physics of just a regular, everyday morning fog. 9 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:35.159 Sure, just you know, a standard terrestrial weather thing. 10 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:36.880 Right, So you wake up, you look out the window, 11 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:41.520 and the ambient temperature overnight has dropped just enough to 12 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:44.320 push the local humidity past its dew point exactly. 13 00:00:44.359 --> 00:00:47.439 The water vapor in the air condenses into this thick, 14 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:48.880 low lying cloud. 15 00:00:49.119 --> 00:00:51.920 Yeah, and it's quiet, it's very localized. But then a 16 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:55.079 few hours later, the morning sun comes up, raises the temperature, 17 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:57.719 and the water sublimates right back into. 18 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:02.320 Gas, and the fog just vanishes. A really narrow thermal gradient. 19 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:05.200 We're talking what maybe a ten or fifteen degree difference 20 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:06.280 between the night and the day. 21 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.159 Right. It happens so easily here on Earth that we 22 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:11.159 barely even think about the mechanics of it, we just 23 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:13.879 call it weather exactly, but I want you to keep 24 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:17.439 that mechanism in mind and then scale it up to 25 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:19.719 an absolute planetary extreme. 26 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:21.920 Oh man, Yeah, this is where it gets wild. 27 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:25.400 Imagine that the suspended particles in that fog aren't liquid water. 28 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:27.599 They are vaporized. 29 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:33.040 Rock, specifically magnesium silicate, literally vaporized sand. 30 00:01:33.159 --> 00:01:36.239 Right, And the temperature gradient that burns off this morning 31 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:39.319 fog isn't just a gentle sunrise. It is a one 32 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:42.719 thousand degree blast of extreme stellar. 33 00:01:42.439 --> 00:01:46.000 Radiation, which is just I mean, the energy required to 34 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:49.680 vaporize a planetary wall of solidifying rock in a few 35 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:53.239 hours is staggering. It completely changes how we think about 36 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:54.760 atmospheric violence. 37 00:01:54.439 --> 00:01:57.920 And that sheer atmospheric violence is exactly what we're focusing 38 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:01.480 on today because for decades as ronomers have been staring 39 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:03.760 at these distant worlds trying to figure out what they're 40 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:04.159 made of. 41 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:07.599 Yeah, relying on spectroscopy to read the chemical signatures, but. 42 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:12.199 They've been blocked by this incredibly mundane physical problem alien clouds. 43 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:14.080 Yeah, the fog in the way exactly. 44 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:16.960 It's been this massive thorn in the side of planetary scientists. 45 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:20.560 But recently there has been this monumental breakthrough. 46 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:22.719 We finally figured out how to wipe the fog off 47 00:02:22.759 --> 00:02:23.479 the window. 48 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:25.319 Right, and the target that allowed us to do this 49 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:28.919 is a gas giant known as OBSP ninety four. 50 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:32.639 AB WSP ninety four AB. Yeah, it's located in the 51 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:36.439 Microscopium constellation, roughly seven hundred light years away from us, and. 52 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:39.400 It falls into that classic category we call a hot jupiter. 53 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:42.479 Which basically means it orbits incredibly close to its host star. 54 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:46.319 It's constantly getting blasted by radiation, and it's tidally locked. 55 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:49.080 Okay, so tidally locked, meaning one side of the planet 56 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:50.400 is always facing the star. 57 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:52.759 Right right, you have a permanent day side that is 58 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:55.400 just getting baked and a prominent night side that is 59 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:59.840 constantly radiating its heat out into the cold vacuum of space. 60 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:03.400 And that intense temperature difference is the engine for this 61 00:03:03.439 --> 00:03:07.360 whole fog problem. But to really appreciate how big of 62 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.120 a deal this new discovery is, we have to look 63 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:11.960 back at the last twenty years. 64 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:15.599 The whole foggy window era of astronomy. 65 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:18.680 Right, because general cloudiness has basically stalled our ability to 66 00:03:18.759 --> 00:03:20.800 study the atmospheres of these hot. 67 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:23.000 Jupiters, it really did. I mean the way we study 68 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:25.639 these exoplanets is through transmission spectroscopy. 69 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:27.879 Right, the telescope breeds the starlight. 70 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:31.080 Exactly when the planet transits or you know, passes in 71 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:34.039 front of its star. The starlight filters through the very 72 00:03:34.199 --> 00:03:37.400 edge of the planet's atmosphere like a halo. Yeah, exactly, 73 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:41.599 an annulus of gas. And as the light passes through 74 00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:46.159 different chemicals like sodium or water or carbon monoxide, they 75 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:49.000 absorb specific wavelengths of that light. 76 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:52.159 And then we catch that light in our telescopes and 77 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.120 basically look at what's missing to figure out the recipe 78 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:56.599 of the atmosphere. 79 00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:59.240 Which works flawlessly, assuming of course, that the atmosphere is 80 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:01.080 made of transparent gases. 81 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.919 Which brings us back to the fog. So think of 82 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:08.759 it like this. Imagine you're standing across the street. 83 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:11.000 From a diner, okay, a diner, Yeah, and. 84 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.840 You're trying to appreciate the super fine details of a 85 00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:17.279 masterpiece painting hanging on the back wall inside that diner. 86 00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:19.800 You know, the painting is there, you can get the 87 00:04:19.879 --> 00:04:23.199 general shapes, but the diner window is completely steamed up 88 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:24.040 with condensation. 89 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:25.639 Oh that's a great way to put it. 90 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:28.560 The crucial details are totally hidden because the light from 91 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:30.319 the diner gets scrambled before it reaches you. 92 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:34.240 In physics we call that me scattering the droplets of condensation, 93 00:04:34.519 --> 00:04:37.120 or in the case of these planets, the high altitude clouds, 94 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:39.800 they literally scatter the photons. 95 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:41.600 So the telescope doesn't see the painting. 96 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:44.879 No, it just reads the chemical signature of the steamed 97 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:46.959 up window. It just reads the cloud layer. 98 00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:48.920 And for a long time, the best tool we had 99 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:52.519 for this was the Hubble Space Telescope, which you know 100 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:54.279 is an absolute marvel of engineer. 101 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:57.319 Oh absolutely, But Hubble had a very specific limitation when 102 00:04:57.319 --> 00:04:59.240 it came to this cloudy window problem. 103 00:04:59.319 --> 00:05:00.680 Right the wide field camera three. 104 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:05.240 Yeah, when researchers pointed Hubble at these hot jupiters, they 105 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:09.079 expected to see these nice deep absorption lines for things 106 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:10.279 like water vapor. 107 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:12.879 But instead the data just came back completely. 108 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:16.120 Flat muted because it was just hitting that opaque, gray 109 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:19.639 wall of high altitude clouds. Hubble was basically just skimming 110 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:21.040 the tops of the cloud decks. 111 00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:23.079 And the real issue wasn't just that Hubble couldn't see 112 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:26.240 through the clouds, it was how it collected the data right, 113 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:30.839 it provided this averaged view, yes. 114 00:05:30.839 --> 00:05:33.519 The spatial integration. That's the technical term for the squish, 115 00:05:33.639 --> 00:05:34.360 the squishing right. 116 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:38.439 Hubble lacked the precision to slice up the data over time, 117 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:41.040 so when it looked at the planet passing in front 118 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:43.519 of the star, it just took all the light from 119 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:47.439 the entire atmosphere mashed it together into one single data point. 120 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:50.439 It convolved it so if one side of the planet 121 00:05:50.519 --> 00:05:55.480 was completely blocked by clouds, that opacity basically watered down 122 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:57.279 the data for the entire planet. 123 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:01.560 It's like taking a really comple like symphony audio track. 124 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:04.680 You've got this delicate string section and then a super 125 00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:07.600 loud brass section, right, and you just compress the whole 126 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:10.639 thing down to a single mono channel with heavy distortion. 127 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:14.680 You totally lose the violins because the brass just overrides everything. 128 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:17.480 And that's exactly what was happening to our atmospheric models. 129 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:20.639 We were building our understanding of these planets based on 130 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:23.279 this muddy, compressed data. 131 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:25.240 Which was incredibly frustrating. I mean, we were staring at 132 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:28.319 a steamed up window for two decades. We needed a 133 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:31.399 better tool to isolate the different parts of the atmosphere. 134 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:34.360 Enter the James Web Space Telescope JWST. 135 00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:37.399 Yes, the James Web. This is where everything changes because 136 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:39.519 JWST didn't just give us a bigger mirror. 137 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:42.920 No, it gave us than your infrared spectrograph, the NIRSpec 138 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:45.319 and crucially the temporal resolution. 139 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:48.600 The ability to track the light perfectly over time, which 140 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:53.000 allowed astronomers to do something basically magical. They watched mcguoy's 141 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:56.399 pay ninety four AB pass directly in front of. 142 00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:58.920 Its star, and instead of mashing all the light together 143 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:00.959 like Hubble did, they sliced it. 144 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:02.759 Okay, but I have to stop you here. I want 145 00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:04.680 to play Devil's advocate for the listener for a second. 146 00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:05.199 Go for it. 147 00:07:05.319 --> 00:07:08.759 This planet is seven hundred light years away from us. Yep. 148 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:13.160 From our perspective, it is a sub microscopic speck. It 149 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:15.279 doesn't even look like a disk in the telescope, righty. 150 00:07:15.319 --> 00:07:18.160 It's essentially just a single pixel of light dipping slightly 151 00:07:18.199 --> 00:07:18.839 in brightness. 152 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:22.720 So how on earth is it physically possible to isolate 153 00:07:22.759 --> 00:07:25.879 the morning weather from the evening weather on a literal. 154 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:28.920 Spec It sounds impossible, right, But it all comes down 155 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:32.519 to the ingenious geometry of a transit. Let's break down 156 00:07:32.519 --> 00:07:36.000 how JWST actually reads the leading edge and the trailing edge. 157 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:38.199 Okay, the anatomy of the transit walks through it. 158 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:41.639 So when Wastpai ninety for ab first begins to cross 159 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:44.160 in front of the star, the very first part of 160 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:47.000 the planet's atmosphere to get back lit by the starlight 161 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:48.639 is the leading edge. 162 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:50.439 The front of the planet, essentially. 163 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:54.000 Exactly, And because the planet is tidally locked, that leading 164 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:58.199 edge represents a very specific atmospheric zone. It's the region 165 00:07:58.199 --> 00:08:00.639 where the winds are blowing from the dark, freezing night 166 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:04.199 side across the terminator into the blazing heat of the 167 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:04.920 day side. 168 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:07.000 Okay, so the air is moving from night to day. 169 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:07.920 That's a sunrise. 170 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:09.040 That's the alien morning. 171 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:09.319 Yes. 172 00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:12.439 So JWST takes its first slices of data right then 173 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:16.040 at the morning terminator. Right then the planet continues its 174 00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:19.000 journey across the face of the star, and as it's 175 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:22.879 exiting the transit, the very last sliver of atmosphere to 176 00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:25.759 be backlit is the trailing edge, the back of the planet. 177 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:28.360 Right and here the atmosphere flow is going in the 178 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:32.480 exact opposite direction. The superheated air from the day side 179 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:35.960 is rotating across the terminator back into the dark night side. 180 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:37.679 Which makes it the alien sunset the. 181 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:41.360 Evening precisely the evening terminator. So by looking at the 182 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:44.159 exact timing of the transit, the very beginning versus the 183 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:48.080 very end, JWST can completely separate the chemical signature of 184 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:51.120 the morning from the chemical signature of the evening. 185 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:54.639 Which is just a staggering technological leap To be able 186 00:08:54.679 --> 00:08:57.360 to not just see the specs seven hundred light years away, 187 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:03.720 but to pinpoint incredibly specific localized slivers of its atmosphere 188 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.159 at exact moments in its rotation. 189 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:10.960 It's mind blowing signal processing. They basically take the overlapping data, 190 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:14.200 do some intense math and subtract the pieces to reveal 191 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:16.559 the distinct morning and evening profiles. 192 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:20.399 When they finally did that math on WT ninety four AB, 193 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:24.519 the dichotomy they found was bizarre. It totally shattered the 194 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:28.039 old Hubble models complete paradigm shift because when they isolated 195 00:09:28.039 --> 00:09:31.000 the morning edge, the data showed it was entirely clouded over, 196 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:33.639 densely cloudy, just a flat wall of opacity. 197 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:35.679 But then they looked at the evening edge, the trailing 198 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:39.679 limb and the skies were perfectly clear, massive distinct chemical 199 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:42.440 absorption features zero clouds. 200 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:45.080 A completely cloudy morning and a perfectly clear evening, which 201 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:47.080 you know, on its face doesn't sound that crazy to right. 202 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:49.120 It happens in Seattle all the time, exactly. 203 00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:51.279 A foggy morning that clears up by dinner time is 204 00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:54.440 totally normal on Earth. But this discovery absolutely shocked the 205 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:57.679 astronomical community. Why was it such a big deal Because. 206 00:09:57.360 --> 00:09:59.840 Of what the clouds are made of and the extreme 207 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.919 physics required to make them disappear. We have to remember 208 00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:05.360 these aren't fluffy water vapor clouds, right. 209 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:06.480 We mentioned this at the start. 210 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:10.240 Magnesium silicate, yes, and stay tight and forced to write. 211 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:13.279 If you look at the Earth's mantle, these minerals make 212 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:14.679 up the vast majority of it. 213 00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:17.679 We are literally talking about rock sand. 214 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:21.840 Yes, So on this planet it is cloudy with a 215 00:10:21.919 --> 00:10:24.039 high chance of literal sandstorms. 216 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:26.120 That's horrifying it is. 217 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:28.519 And the reason the morning is so cloudy is because 218 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:31.159 of the night side temperature. The dark side of this 219 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:35.240 planet is cold enough that gaseous magnesium and silicon actually condense, 220 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:39.399 They nucleate and form this massive global cloud deck of 221 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:40.879 suspended sand in the dark. 222 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:44.159 So you have this solid wall of rock particles, and 223 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:48.840 the plant's rotation carries that dark, sandy atmospheric mass right 224 00:10:48.840 --> 00:10:50.679 across the morning terminator exactly. 225 00:10:51.159 --> 00:10:53.240 It passes in front of the star as a literal 226 00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:56.080 physical wall of sand, which perfectly explains why the morning 227 00:10:56.159 --> 00:10:56.840 data was flat. 228 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:58.679 The starlight couldn't punch through the rock. 229 00:10:58.960 --> 00:10:59.279 Right. 230 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:02.720 By the time that exact same patch of atmosphere reaches 231 00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:06.600 the evening terminator, the sand is completely gone. The skies 232 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:07.480 are crystal clear. 233 00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:10.279 And that is the massive physical question, right. Yeah, on 234 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:13.679 a planet that's bigger than Jupiter, where do thousands of 235 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:18.200 miles of suspended, vaporized rock go in just a few hours. 236 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:21.600 It's a huge mystery. You have this massive thermal gradient. 237 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:25.159 The day side is getting blasted by a thousand degree heat. 238 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:28.000 You can't just maintain a static wall of sand under 239 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:28.759 those conditions. 240 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:31.159 The atmosphere has to react violently. 241 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:34.759 Very violently. And researchers basically have two working theories for 242 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:37.679 what is causing this great disappearance by nightfall. 243 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:40.039 Theory one and theory two. Let's break them down. 244 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:43.240 Ray Theory one is the burial mechanism. 245 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:45.120 Burial, meaning the clouds are getting shoved underground. 246 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:48.399 Basically, yes, So you have this extreme temperature difference between 247 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:50.320 the day and the night right that creates an immense 248 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:54.039 pressure gradient, and because the planet is rotating, it spins 249 00:11:54.120 --> 00:11:57.840 up this massive, superfast jet stream right around the equator. 250 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:01.720 In the equatorial jet just blast the eastward exactly. 251 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:05.720 And as this jet stream carries those heavy sand clouds 252 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:08.480 from the cold morning into the blazing hot day side, 253 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:13.039 the sudden heat causes complex vertical wind share, meaning. 254 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:15.120 The wind doesn't just blow left to right, it blows 255 00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:15.799 up and down. 256 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:20.200 Yes, massive planetary down drafts. The theory is that these 257 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:24.519 powerful winds violently plunge downward, dragging millions of tons of 258 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:28.240 silicate clouds deep into the planet's interior wow yeah, pulling 259 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:30.639 them completely out of sight. So by the time that 260 00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:33.840 air mass reaches the evening, the upper atmosphere has been 261 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:36.679 essentially vacuum to clean the clouds are buried. 262 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:40.240 That is intense just to localized vertical wind dragging an 263 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:44.039 entire ocean of sand straight down. What kind of immense 264 00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:46.480 planetary circulation would be required to sustain that. 265 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:50.039 Our three D fluid dynamics model suggests it's entirely possible, 266 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:52.399 especially near the equator where these forces converge. 267 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:55.440 Okay, so that's theory one, the burial. The Theory two 268 00:12:55.480 --> 00:12:56.480 is even more extreme, isn't it. 269 00:12:56.559 --> 00:12:59.120 Oh, Theory two is the extreme burnoff flash vaporization. 270 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:02.120 This is the Earth analogy, but just dialed up to 271 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:03.240 a terrifying extreme. 272 00:13:03.480 --> 00:13:07.120 Precisely, this theory says we don't even need complex downward winds, 273 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:11.120 it's just brute force thermodynamics. As the planet rotates and 274 00:13:11.159 --> 00:13:14.639 that thick wall of solidifying sand drifts out of the 275 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:17.919 dark morning and hits the one thousand plus degree heat 276 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:19.320 of the day side. 277 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:22.279 It just boils the actual chemical bonds of the rock. 278 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:26.799 The solid particles literally flash vaporize. They absorb the stellar 279 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:31.440 radiation so fast that they sublimate right back into a transparent. 280 00:13:30.919 --> 00:13:35.000 Gas vaporized into nothingness. Yeah, just completely annihilated by the 281 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:35.639 heat of the star. 282 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.639 Yep. And because gash of silicon doesn't block the infrared 283 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:41.440 telescope plight the way solid sand does, the opacity just 284 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:42.399 drops to zero. 285 00:13:42.600 --> 00:13:44.600 So by the time the wind carries that air to 286 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:48.440 the evening terminator, it's perfectly transparent. The clouds only form 287 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:50.799 again once they cross back into the cold night. Ah. 288 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:54.960 A daily planetary scale sand boil. The sheer violence of 289 00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:58.120 that imagery is amazing. A wall of solid sand flying 290 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:01.000 out of the dark and instantly vaporizing in blind and heat. 291 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:03.720 It really is incredible to picture. But as fascinating as 292 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:06.960 that violent meteorological event is, the absence of those clouds 293 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:10.080 in the evening actually provided an even bigger scientific price. 294 00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:13.279 Right because the evening was finally clear, astronomers could just 295 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:17.639 look at the trailing edge and see the actual true atmosphere. 296 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:18.840 Of the planet without any fog in the way. 297 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:21.480 And this brings us back to that baffling error from 298 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:25.200 the old Hubble data. When Hubble was squishing the cloudy 299 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:28.519 morning and the clear evening together, the data it spit 300 00:14:28.600 --> 00:14:31.200 out was deeply, deeply problematic. 301 00:14:31.399 --> 00:14:34.320 It was a nightmare for theorists because when you convolve 302 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:37.559 that data, the massive cloud deck hid all the water 303 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:40.879 absorption lines, so the planet looked like it was completely 304 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:42.279 depleted of oxygen, but the. 305 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:44.039 Carbon lines were still somewhat visible. 306 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:48.000 Right, So the old data suggested that WSP ninety four 307 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:51.639 AB had a carbon to oxygen ratio of almost one 308 00:14:51.639 --> 00:14:52.600 point zero. 309 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:54.759 Meaning there was basically just as much carbon as oxygen, 310 00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:57.639 which doesn't sound like a big deal to a layman, 311 00:14:57.720 --> 00:14:59.960 but in planetary science that's impossible. 312 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:04.200 It completely broke existing theories of how planets form. You 313 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:07.039 cannot easily explain how a gas giant could form with 314 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:10.960 that absurdly high ratio of carbon to oxygen. It also 315 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:13.679 implied the planet was hundreds of times more metal rich 316 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:14.679 than our own Jupiter. 317 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:17.559 So it's like it's like looking at a person who 318 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:22.039 is wearing a massive, puffy, leadlined winter coat. Huh exactly, 319 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:24.879 and from across the street you look at them in 320 00:15:24.919 --> 00:15:28.320 this giant coat and you conclude, Wow, that person must 321 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:32.159 weigh six hundred pounds. They are medically inexplicable. 322 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:32.879 Right, they defy biology. 323 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:36.399 But really it's just the coat. And JWST basically just 324 00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:38.200 waited for the planet to take the coat off in 325 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:39.799 the evening so we could finally put it on a 326 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:40.559 real scale. 327 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:43.799 That is a perfect analogy. The anomaly was a total 328 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:45.639 illusion caused by the clouds. 329 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:49.200 So what happened when JWST actually weighed the planet so 330 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:50.919 to speak, in the clear evening. 331 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:55.799 Sky, the unfogged spectrum revealed these massive, beautiful absorption bands 332 00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:59.120 for water vapor. The oxygen was there all along. It 333 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:01.440 was just hiding behind in the morning sandstorm, So the. 334 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:03.960 Carbon oxygen ratio wasn't one point zero. 335 00:16:03.679 --> 00:16:06.240 No, it plummeted right back down to a totally normal 336 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:09.799 baseline about point five. And the overall metallicity was only 337 00:16:09.799 --> 00:16:13.159 about five times that of Jupiter, not hundreds of times, 338 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:13.720 so it's. 339 00:16:13.559 --> 00:16:18.000 Actually incredibly Jupiter like. It completely solved the formation theory crisis. 340 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:22.120 Yep, the theorists all breathed a massive sigh of relief. 341 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:25.720 The core accretion models didn't need to be rewritten. The 342 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:29.159 planet formed exactly how we expect gas giants to form 343 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:32.200 out beyond the water snow line in its stellar nursery, 344 00:16:32.679 --> 00:16:34.080 and then migrated inward. 345 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:37.559 The error was entirely observational. We just couldn't see through 346 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:40.799 the fog exactly. Fixing our understanding of this one specific 347 00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:44.679 planet is incredible. But this new technique, this ability to 348 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:48.080 isolate the morning and evening to find clear skies on 349 00:16:48.120 --> 00:16:51.519 a cloudy planet, that has implications for the entire galaxy, 350 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:51.879 doesn't it? 351 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:55.159 Oh? Absolutely, this is just the beginning. These hot Jupiters 352 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:59.639 like WSP ninety four AB, because of their extreme environments, 353 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:02.480 they serve as these perfect cosmic laboratory. 354 00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:04.960 Because the forces are so exaggerated, it makes the physics 355 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:06.319 easier to see exactly. 356 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:09.079 It's a stress test for our atmospheric models. We can 357 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:12.279 study the intense chemistry and the physics of cloud dynamics 358 00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:13.039 in real time. 359 00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:16.400 In WSP ninety four AB wasn't just a one off fluke, right, 360 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:18.440 The researchers actually expanded their roster. 361 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:22.319 Yeah. They took the same asymmetric limb analysis, the morning 362 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:25.640 versus evening technique, and applied it to eight other hot 363 00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:26.400 gas giants. 364 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:27.440 And what did they find. 365 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:31.279 They found this exact same distinctive cloud cycle on at 366 00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:35.000 least two other worlds right away, WASP thirty nine B 367 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:36.720 and WASP P seventeen B. 368 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:40.759 Wow. So it's a fundamental feature of these tidally locked giants, 369 00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:43.200 a cloudy morning and a clear evening. 370 00:17:43.400 --> 00:17:47.240 It seems to be ubiquitous, which gives the JWST teams 371 00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:51.759 incredible confidence as they plan their upcoming large scale observing programs. 372 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:53.359 They're scaling up big time. 373 00:17:53.559 --> 00:17:56.720 Astronomers are moving way beyond just the hot jupiters. Now 374 00:17:57.039 --> 00:17:59.599 they are preparing to study cloud cycles across a huge 375 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:03.720 variet of exoplanets. They're even looking at eccentric gas giants 376 00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:06.920 that have highly variable heating as they swing close to 377 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:08.640 and far away from their stars. 378 00:18:08.839 --> 00:18:11.559 Okay, so they're perfecting these tools. They're learning exactly how 379 00:18:11.559 --> 00:18:14.119 to read the weather, how to mathematically strip away the 380 00:18:14.119 --> 00:18:16.960 clouds on a molten gas chanel. Right, and this is 381 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:20.359 the ultimate forward looking question. Is this the necessary stepping. 382 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:21.680 Stone to earth like planets? 383 00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:25.480 Yes? Are we building the exact tools we need to 384 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:28.359 eventually look through the clouds of a terrestrial rock planet 385 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:32.400 in the habitable zone to find the exact chemicals signatures 386 00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:33.079 of life. 387 00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:38.440 Yes, categorically yes. Understanding cloud physics is the mandatory gateway 388 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:41.440 to finding true biosignatures. 389 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:43.759 Because if an earth like planet has a dense water 390 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:46.400 cloud layer and we try to read it the way 391 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:48.319 Hubble read the hot jupiters. 392 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:50.720 We'd get a completely false reading. A thick cloud layer 393 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:53.400 on a rocky world could easily mask the upsten or 394 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:56.720 methane we're looking for, or worse, the light scattering off 395 00:18:56.759 --> 00:18:58.960 the clouds could mimic a gas that isn't even there, 396 00:18:59.400 --> 00:19:01.400 giving us a false positive for life. 397 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.480 So if you can't subtract the clouds mathematically, you can't 398 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:06.079 trust the biological signature. 399 00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:08.799 Exactly the work we're doing right now in these violent 400 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:12.920 extreme gas giants is building the robust mathematical architecture we 401 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:14.400