Space telescope James Webb He continues to delve into the corners of the Universe and from time to time surprises us with new incredible discoveries. This time, NASA’s powerful instrument collided with extremely hot planet where it rains sand. But there’s something else: it contains large amounts of steam and sulfur, which give its atmosphere the smell of burning matches.
Even before these latest observations, scientists had already realized that this was an exotic planet. They nicknamed it “cotton candy” because it was so big and light. Exoplanet OSA-107b It is much larger than Neptune and somewhat smaller than Saturn. It orbits a star slightly cooler and less massive than our Sun, about 200 light-years away. To give them a better idea of your location, point to the constellation Virgo.
It’s the exoplanet’s fluffiness that allows astronomers to peer deeper into its atmosphere. Almost 50 times more compared to the exploration depth of Jupiter, to be more precise. Thus, with the help of data from James Webb and the analysis of researchers from the Leuven Institute of Astronomy, they were able to uncover one by one the secrets of this planet, such as sand rain.
The chemical composition of the clouds of another planet has been identified for the first timethey explain in a study published this week in the journal Nature. James Webb “changes our understanding of planet formation and evolution, shedding new light on our solar system,” Lyn Decin, lead author of the study, said in a statement.
Why is it raining sand on this planet that James Webb found?
According to data collected with the help of James Webb, the clouds of WASP-107b contain silicate sand. In its atmosphere something similar to the water cycle on our Earth will happen, only with sand, which changes between solid and gaseous states.
In the lowest regions of the atmosphere, temperatures approach 1000 °C. Scientists believe that silicate vapor rises, cools and forms microscopic grains of sand. They are so small that they cannot be seen. This is how these clouds of dust formed, which at some point would become so dense that the unthinkable would happen: sand would rain on the planet. At some point, as the sand falls, it will again turn into steam from the heat and complete the cycle.
“For the first time, James Webb allows us to deeply characterize the atmosphere of an exoplanet that has no counterpart in our solar system,” said Akrena Dayrek, another leader of the study. “We are opening new worlds!”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s largest space science observatory. Last July, it completed its first year of activity and offered us unprecedented discoveries that have changed our understanding of the universe. In September, for example, a report was published about the discovery of a potential water world in which life could exist. The program is led by NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
Source: Hiper Textual
