Video Transcript: Weird Warm Spot on Exoplanet

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This animation shows an unexpected warm spot on the surface of the gaseous explained known as Epsilon Andromedae b.

Taking only 4 and a half days to complete an orbit, the planet is tidally locked to its star with the same side always facing the heat.

Astronomers using NASA' s Spitzer Space Telescope measured how the infrared light of the system changes as the planet circles its star.

When it's brightest we're seeing the hottest part of the planet.

Remarkably that hot spot is not on the side facing the star but is rotated about 80 degrees towards the boundary between day and night.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology