LAUSR

High winds in an extrasolar atmosphere Brown dwarfs are objects intermediate in mass between large planets and small stars, and their atmospheres share many characteristics with gas giant planets. Wind speeds in Solar System gas giant atmospheres can be derived by comparing the planet's rotational periods in the infrared (tracing the upper atmosphere) and radio (tied to the interior). Allers et al. observed a nearby brown dwarf, 2MASS J10475385+2124234, and determined its infrared and radio periods. They derived an average wind speed of ∼650 meters per second in a west-to-east direction. This technique should also work for exoplanets. Science, this issue p. 169 Radio and infrared monitoring of a nearby brown dwarf show that its atmosphere has strong winds in an east-west direction. Zonal (latitudinal) winds dominate the bulk flow of planetary atmospheres. For gas giant planets such as Jupiter, the motion of clouds can be compared with radio emissions from the magnetosphere, which is connected to the planet’s interior, to determine the wind speed. In principle, this technique can be applied to brown dwarfs and/or directly imaged exoplanets if periods can be determined for both the infrared and radio emissions. We apply this method to measure the wind speeds on the brown dwarf 2MASS J10475385+2124234. The difference between the radio period of 1.751 to 1.765 hours and infrared period of 1.741 ± 0.007 hours implies a strong wind (+650 ± 310 meters per second) proceeding eastward. This could be due to atmospheric jet streams and/or low frictional drag at the bottom of the atmosphere.