Weird Warm Spot on Exoplanet This animation illustrates an
unexpected warm spot on the surface of a gaseous exoplanet.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered that the hottest part
of the planet, shown here as bright, orange patches on the
surface, is not directly under the glare of its star but over to
the side. The planet -- a hot, gaseous orb named upsilon
Andromedae b -- whips around its star every 4.6 days. Its
relative size has been scaled up a bit here for clarity. Because
the planet is so close, it is tidally locked, meaning that one
side is eternally bombarded by the star's radiation. As can be
seen in the animation, the side of the planet facing the star is
lit up, while the other side lives in the darkness. The
perspective drawn here starts from overhead, and then changes to
Earth's point of view; in other words, in the second part of the
animation, Earth and the Spitzer telescope are located in the
direction of the viewer. Spitzer observed the heat from the star
system with its infrared detector