Scientists observe a massive dust storm in the atmosphere of VHS 1256 b, a super-Jupiter exoplanet located 40 light years from Earth. Photo/Live Science/STScl
Scientists observe these sandstorms using the powerful detectors of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Scientists saw a combination of water, methane and carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere. These observations were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on March 22, 2023
The super-Jupiter planet, meaning a gas giant larger than Jupiter, is known as VHS 1256 b and orbits its two very distant stars. It takes about 10,000 years to complete one orbit.
Because the exoplanet is so far from its host star, starlight doesn’t obscure the planet so scientists can observe it directly. For observations of exoplanets orbiting closer to their stars, scientists must study the light emitted by their host stars through the exoplanet’s atmosphere.
“VHS 1256 b is about four times farther from its star than Pluto is from our sun, which makes it a great target for Webb,” said Brittany Miles, an astrophysicist at The University of Arizona. /2023).
The clouds that JWST observed are made up of tiny silicate particles that are even smaller than a grain of sand. “These silicate particles may be more like tiny particles in smoke,” said Beth Biller, an astronomer at the University of Edinburgh in England.
He added that the larger particles in a planet’s atmosphere can be like very small grains of sand. The clouds are also very hot, the temperature in the planet’s atmospheric layers soaring to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit or 830 degrees Celsius.
According to the researchers, the dust storm will not last forever. VHS 1256 b is a relatively young planet, only 150 million years old, which means it will change as it ages. Because it is so far from its parent star, VHS 1256 will cool, and its turbulent atmosphere will probably dissipate.
The team observed the planet’s turbulent atmosphere using JWST’s suite of infrared cameras, including the Near Infrared Spectrograph and Mid-Infrared Instruments. The infrared light spectrum allows scientists to get more precise measurements of the light a planet emits without interference from the visible light from its parent star.
The new paper is just the start of the team’s dive into JWST’s measurements of a massive exoplanet. “We have identified silicates, but a better understanding of which grain sizes and shapes are compatible with certain types of clouds will require a lot of additional research,” said Miles.
(wib)
