"James Webb" discovered a planet where it rains sand

NASA James Webb Space Telescope discovered planet Wasp-107b, where grains of sand fall from the sky in the form of rain. It is located 200 light years away from us.

It was discovered back in 2017 after astronomers noticed a characteristic periodic flickering of light from its parent star every time it passed in front of it. But then it was like watching a cricket next to a street lamp - scientists could only see a slight dimming of the light.

The James Webb took the study of the planet to a new level, allowing scientists to measure the starlight that filters through its atmosphere and identify the gases present there.

Thus, the presence of water vapor and sulfur dioxide was detected on Wasp-107b, which should give the atmosphere the smell of burnt matches. The chemical composition of the clouds was also identified for the first time - they consist of silicate sand.

Something similar to the water cycle on Earth is happening on the planet. From the hotter lower layers of the atmosphere, with temperatures close to 1,000°C, silicate vapor rises, cools and forms microscopic grains of sand. They are too small to be seen. Then rain begins from the clouds formed from this, which returns the sand back to the lower layers of the atmosphere. And so on in a circle.

Astronomers also found that Wasp-107b's size is comparable to Jupiter, and its mass is comparable to Neptune. That is, it is gigantic and light. Because of this feature, it was nicknamed the “cotton candy planet.”

Natalia Krasiy

31 minutes ago

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