Astronomers claim they have successfully measured and mapped the weather system of HD 189733b, an extrasolar planet about 63 light-years away from the solar system, for the first time. Winds on the exoplanet are blowing at a speed of about 5,400 miles per hour, according to the astronomers at the University of Warwick.

The winds on HD 189733b are over 20 times faster than winds on earth, and about seven times faster than speed of light. Before the new discovery, winds on Jupiter's Little Red Spot were recorded as the fastest. On Little Red Spot, winds blow at a 382 miles per hour.

The astronomers measured the alien winds with the help of the Doppler effect, also known as Doppler shift. It is the change in frequency of a light and sound wave for an observer moving relative to its source.

Tom Louden, lead astronomer from the University of Warwick's Astrophysics school, said as some parts of the exoplanet’s atmosphere move away from our home planet, wavelength of the feature changes due to the Doppler effect. According to the astronomer, “The surface of the star is brighter at the center than it is at the edge, so as the planet moves in front of the star the relative amount of light blocked by different parts of the atmosphere changes”.

It was the first time when this information was used to measure and map winds of an extrasolar planet. This technique could be used in near future to map the weather on Earth-like planets.