Search results for Exoplanet Atmospheres

Webb Finds Water-Ice Clouds on Nearby Super-Jupiter

The giant planets in our solar system—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—have challenged our understanding of planetary formation and evolution. Specifically, their atmospheric f...

Astronomers de-fog exoplanet atmospheres with new cloud-detecting method

Sand clouds form every morning but clear up by nightfall on WASP-94A b, a well-studied gas giant in a constellation located nearly 700 light years away from Earth. Using data from...

Giant 'forbidden planet' orbiting small star shows an unusually low-metal atmosphere

Scientists have discovered that a highly unusual giant planet—sometimes called "forbidden"—could have an atmosphere with fewer heavier elements than its host star. University o...

Exoplanet Host Star Shares Elemental Traits with Its Hot Jupiter

An ultra-hot Jupiter exoplanet orbiting a nearby star gave scientists using the Gemini South telescope a look at how both a star and its hot planet can have similar chemical compos...

Team discovers daily cloud cycle on Hot Jupiter planet

"...we can finally pin down what the clouds are made out of and how they're condensing and evaporating as they move around the planet."

JWST maps the weather on a hot gas giant 700 light-years away

The differences seen here could be throwing off how we study planetary atmospheres.

This Alien Planet Has Rock Clouds That Vaporize Before Sunset

JWST has revealed a surprising daily cloud cycle on a distant hot Jupiter, giving scientists a clearer look at its atmosphere. On WASP-94A b, the forecast changes fast. Clouds made...

JWST sees partly cloudy skies on a distant, giant exoplanet

An out-of-this-world weather report from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals how clouds move across a giant planet hundreds of light-years from Earth

Astronomers explore the surface composition of a nearby super-Earth

Using MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of researchers led by former MPIA (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germa...

This exoplanet weather forecast by the James Webb Space Telescope calls for sandy skies and a clear (alien) sunset

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have witnessed a cloudy morning dissipating to leave a clear sky by dusk on a distant hot Jupiter.

Astronomers find an exo-Jupiter, and it seems to have clouds

A team of astronomers led by Elisabeth Matthews at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has made a discovery that highlights the limits of most current models of exoplanet...

Between eternal night and day, the faces of two cousins of Earth

An international team including the University of Bern (UNIBE) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE), members of the National Center of Competence in Research PlanetS, has succeeded...

Astronomers find an exo-Jupiter, and it seems to have clouds

JWST studied a massive Jupiter-like exoplanet's atmosphere, finding surprising water-ice clouds that simpler models missed - a key test run for future Earth-like world searches.

A Giant Planet That Should Not Exist Has an Atmosphere That Makes Even Less Sense

Astronomers Find Atmosphere Around a Pluto-like World

Observations — including from an amateur astronomer — show that the Plutino 2002 XV93 has a thin wisp of air around it. The post Astronomers Find Atmosphere Around a Pluto-like Wor...

Saturn-sized exoplanet with Earth-like temperature reveals methane-rich atmosphere

A planet that is about the size of Saturn, but with a temperature more like Earth's, has an atmosphere rich in methane, according to a new study using NASA's James Webb Space Teles...

JWST spots methane on a giant exoplanet, but its star may be distorting the signal

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and elsewhere have observed a giant exoplanet known as HATS-75 b. Results of the new ob...

Sand Clouds Form Every Morning and Vanish by Dusk on Distant Gas Giant

On a world some 700 light years away, the wind never stops. WASP-94A b spins one face toward its star forever, so a single hemisphere bakes at well over 1,000 degrees while the oth...

Nearby Super-Earth Has No Atmosphere and a Dark, Moon-like Surface

The James Webb Space Telescope has observed the surface of a bare rocky exoplanet, revealing old, dark rock akin to that on our Moon. The post Nearby Super-Earth Has No Atmospher...

Gemini South confirms long-suspected link between the composition of exoplanets and their host stars

Astronomers have discovered that a giant planet, WASP-189b, echoes the composition of its host star, providing the first direct evidence of a foundational concept in astrobiology....

JWST Studies a Dark and Airless Super-Earth

There's a planet out there called LHS 3844 b, orbiting a star about 48 light-years away. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) found it in 2018 when the planet transited...

Tiny World in Outer Solar System Has an Atmosphere. It Shouldn’t.

On January 10, 2024, a dim star in the constellation Gemini began to disappear. Not dramatically, not all at once, but gradually, its light thinning by degrees as something cold an...

320 Light-Years Away, a Planet Confirms a Fundamental Cosmic Assumption

Scientists confirmed that an exoplanet mirrors its star’s chemical makeup, validating a core assumption about how planets form and evolve. Astronomers have found that the giant exo...

The Habitable Worlds Observatory Will Need Astrometry To Find Life

We’re getting closer and closer to finding a real Earth-like exoplanet. But finding one is only half the battle. To truly know if we’re looking at an Earth analog somewhere else in...