Venus Highlights a Big Problem With How We Measure Alien Planets (zmescience.com)

Discovering Venus-like conditions beyond our Solar System could reveal why some rocky worlds remain havens for life while others become scorching greenhouse infernos. Before solving that mystery, however, astronomers must determine how quickly those distant planets are truly spinning. Slower rotations can cause hellish conditions astronomers see on Venus, but new research suggests a planet’s atmosphere may make the world appear to rotate much faster than it really does, complicating efforts to understand the climates of planets beyond our solar system. Research by Stephen Kane, a planetary astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside, explores how high-speed atmospheric winds could be mistaken for the rotation of a rocky planet’s solid surface. The issue could become more important as future observatories begin studying Earth- and Venus-sized worlds. “People tend to overlook planetary rotation, but it is absolutely key to understanding a planet’s climate,” Kane said. Venus’ solid surface takes approximately 243 Earth days to complete one rotation, yet its atmosphere circles the planet at cloud level in roughly four to five days. An observer tracking only those clouds could conclude that Venus rotates about 60 times faster than it does. Scientists call this atmospheric movement superrotation, in which winds travel around...