Astronomers have found winds on a distant world that blow at a phenomenal 5.6 miles per second (9 kilometers per second), or 20,500 miles per hour (33,000 kilometers per hour) — the fastest winds ever measured on a planet.
The faraway world, a gas giant called WASP-127b that was discovered in 2016, orbits a star 520 light-years from Earth. It zips around its host star in just four days, following a slightly skewed orbit. The exoplanet is also likely tidally locked to its star the same way the moon is to Earth — but perhaps its biggest eccentric trait is that it is slightly larger than Jupiter, yet only 16% as massive, making it one of the puffiest planets known to astronomers. So, its heavily inflated nature enables eager astronomers to look through the upper layers of its atmosphere.
