James Webb Space Telescope spots alien planet shrouded in weird sand-filled clouds

There is a strange alien world covered in clouds of sand-like silicate grains.

According to a new paper, the first detection of its kind was made by the NIRSpec and MIRI instruments. There were silicate-rich clouds around a brown dwarf that was 20 times the size of Jupiter. Some earlier theories about these strange worlds have been confirmed.

There are brown dwarfs that are too big for ordinary planets. Brown dwarfs can produce their own light and heat by burning deuterium, a less common form of hydrogen.

There is a space telescope that sniffs out carbon dioxide.

VHS 1256 b is a brown dwarf that is some 72 light-years from Earth in the constellation Corvus. Astronomers have been perplexed by the strange exoplanet since it was discovered. The glow could be caused by an atmosphere. The theory that VHS 1256 b must be wrapped in thick clouds of sand-like silicate grains has been confirmed by observations from the James Webb Space Telescope.

The atmosphere of VHS 1256 b contained water, methane, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide, sodium and potassium.

Brittany Miles, an astronomer at the University of California, Irvine, is the lead researcher on the project. It looks like it's in line with expectations.

VHS 1256 b's atmosphere is said to be wild and turbulent due to the detailed data from the Webb.

There is an expected ratio of methane and carbon monoxide in a calm atmosphere, according to one of the study's co- authors. "But in many atmospheres we're finding that this ratio is very skewed, suggesting that there is turbulent vertical mixing in these atmospheres, dredge up carbon dioxide from deep down to mix with the methane higher up in the atmosphere

VHS 1256 b is small for a brown dwarf and it's likely young. It takes 17,000 years for the exoplanet to complete its circle around the sun- Earth.

An early version of the paper can be found on the online preprint repository arXiv.org.

You can follow Tereza Pultarova on social networking sites. We encourage you to follow us on social networking sites.