The Webb Space Telescope turned on its infrared one look extraterrestrial And they found thick clouds swirling in its atmosphere A strange world.
Planet—VHS 1256b—has a 22-hour day, but it sits unusually far from the two orbiting stars, which orbit together at the center of the system. Astronomers used the Webbs Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to observe the planet, and they found it. It looks like there is an upper atmosphere sIllegal clouds Persistence of smoke. Deep in the planet, Clouds of large grains are visible More sediment. Unlike Earth’s clouds, the exoplanet’s clouds are as hot as a candle flame, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute. liberation.
A NASA Mail Describes clouds as “swirling” and “pressure” and notes that changes in brightness are caused by the movements of clouds. “It is so dramatic that it is the most heterogeneous planetary-mass object known to date.
VHS 1256b is four times farther away than Pluto Sun, i.e. one of its years 10,000 Earth years long.
Astronomers also found clear signs of water, methane and carbon monoxide, as well as some symptoms of carbon dioxide. How these molecules appear on the planet — in which clouds they swirl, or how deep in the planet they sit — is still unclear.
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“The web’s high-resolution data confirm our current models,” said Polychronis Batapis, an astronomer at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. STSCI liberation “Current models may absorb one or two features, but not as much as Webb showed us this goal.”
This isn’t Webb’s first foray into exoplanet observation. The $10 billion space observatory still exists The first year of scientific observations, but it already published Dazzling portfolio of space images.
An exoplanet spectrum is includedEd A testament to how important alien worlds are, with Webb’s first early scientific observational publications. of work Scientific goals. Webb discovered its first carbon dioxide on another world In the month of August Following that in September First pictures of exoplanet. November, It is to expressA noxious extraterrestrial atmosphere And An entirely new exoplanet was discovered this January.
VHS 1256b is another piece of the exoplanetary jigsaw. Astronomically speaking, the planet is relatively young. 150 million years old (now we’re talking Earth years again). For reference, our planet is about 4.6 billion years old.
As VHS 1256b ages, scientists believe it will cool, and the heavy cloud cover in its sky may dissipate. Until then, the planet is in its own warm, cloudy mess.
Also: New web film is a spectacular view of a star’s final stages
