NASA’s James Webb discovers a bizarre ‘fluffy’ planet 212 light years away from Earth with clouds made from sand

With its “thin” atmosphere and clouds of sand, WASP-107b looks like a world from a science fiction movie.

But it’s actually a Jupiter-sized exoplanet, located just over 200 light-years from Earth, and has one of the most unusual atmospheres ever discovered.

Not only do they contain sand clouds and silicate water, but astronomers were surprised by the presence of sulfur dioxide, which on Earth can produce acid rain.

Most surprising, experts said, was that NASA’s $10bn (£7.4bn) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) had detected no trace of the greenhouse gas methane.

This is important because it indicates that WASP-107b has an interesting and as yet unknown mechanism for transporting heat around the dynamic atmosphere.

It also has a cloud formation system similar to Earth’s, according to researchers from the Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven in the Netherlands, albeit producing droplets of sand instead of water.

Although clouds on exoplanets have been discovered before, this is the first time their chemical composition has been analyzed by astronomers.

This was made possible thanks to Webb, which has the Mid-Range Infrared Instrument (MIRI) that helps provide pioneering observations of exoplanets.

WASP-107b is a warm gas giant orbiting a star slightly cooler and less massive than our Sun.

It has a similar mass to Neptune and a ‘fuzz’ that allows for this Astronomers must look into its atmosphere about 50 times deeper than would be possible when Jupiter was much closer to Earth.

This was vital because it meant they could better break down its complex chemical composition.

For example, researchers were able to prove that sulfur dioxide was likely present, thanks in part to the exoplanet’s host star.

Although it is cooler than our Sun, the high-energy photons it produces are able to reach deep into WASP-107b’s atmosphere because of its thinness, enabling the chemical reactions needed to produce sulfur dioxide.

“The James Webb Space Telescope is revolutionizing the characterization of exoplanets, providing unprecedented insights at remarkable speed,” said lead author of the study, Professor Lene Dessen, from KU Leuven.

The discovery of clouds of sand, water and sulfur dioxide on this thin exoplanet by JWST’s MIRI instrument is a pivotal event.

“It reshapes our understanding of planetary formation and evolution, and sheds new light on our solar system.”

On Earth, we all know that water freezes at low temperatures.

However, when it comes to gas giants where temperatures reach around 1000 degrees Celsius, it is possible for silicate particles to freeze and form clouds.

Since WASP-107b has a temperature of about 500 degrees Celsius in its outer atmosphere, it was expected that these silicate clouds would form deeper inside the planet, where temperatures are much higher.

Not only that, but sand clouds at high altitudes don’t tend to stay in place for long, which is why WASP-107b and its atmosphere have left astronomers somewhat puzzled.

But their search for an explanation led them to a somewhat familiar conclusion.

“The fact that we see these sand clouds high in the atmosphere must mean that the sand raindrops are evaporating in deeper, much hotter layers and the resulting silicate vapor is efficiently transported to the top, where it is re-condensed to form silicate clouds again.” said fellow lead author Dr. Michelle Min.

“This is very similar to the water vapor and cloud cycle on our Earth but with droplets made of sand.”

Research is important because it reveals fascinating new insights about complex matters Interaction between chemicals and climate conditions on distant worlds like WASP-107b.

The hope, researchers say, is that with Webb they can continue to “uncover new worlds” and make new discoveries about the interior composition of these distant planets.

The new study was published in the journal nature.