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Surprising: No methane on the night side of exoplanet WASP-43b

To the surprise of astronomers, the night side of exoplanet WASP-43b does not appear to contain methane. It is likely that extreme winds do not allow enough time for methane to form in detectable amounts. This is the conclusion of an international team of scientists, with contributions from Amsterdam and Leiden Universities, in Nature Astronomy published today. They followed the exoplanet and its host star with the JWST for an entire planetary year (19.5 hours).
An artist's impression of the exoplanet WASP-43b in close orbit around its parent star. The planet's close orbit has caused its rotation period to synchronize with the orbital period of 19.5 hours. As a result, WASP-43b always faces the star with the same hemisphere. The permanent day side reaches temperatures of up to 1250 degrees Celsius. The permanent night side, with temperatures around 600 degrees, is covered by clouds of condensed mineral droplets. (c) T. Müller/MPIA/HdA
One year on exoplanet WASP-43b. Researchers followed exoplanet WASP-43b for more than a planet's year (19.5 hours). This allowed them to create a temperature map of the planet's atmosphere. On the permanent day side of the planet, the temperature is 1,250 degrees Celsius. On the night side, it is 600 degrees Celsius. (c) Taylor J. Bell et al.

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