Nasa's James Webb telescope spots collection of shocking materials on distant planet

[Judi Lynn]

1. It's raining sand (on a distant fluffy exoplanet)

By Nicholas Gerbis
Published: Friday, November 17, 2023 - 2:16pm

About 200 light years away, a planet with a mass like Neptune, a diameter like Jupiter and an atmosphere like Venus whips backward around its star, eight times closer than Mercury circles our sun, and completes an orbit once every six days.

Scientist using an infrared instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have now peered deep into the “fluffy” exoplanet.

The gas giant, dubbed WASP-107b, holds water, lacks methane and has a warm interior. Its nearby star boils off the planet’s atmosphere and pushes it away, much like the tail of a comet.

But the most striking aspect reported in the journal Nature might be the fog of 800-degree F (425 C) sand that floats suspended and rains down within its atmosphere.

More:
https://kjzz.org/content/1863299/its-raining-sand-distant-fluffy-exoplanet