“James Webb” discovered a planet with rain of sand

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope discovered the planet Wasp 107b, where sand grains rain from the sky. It is 200 light years away from us. The star was discovered in 2017 after astronomers noticed a distinctive periodic flicker of light from its host star each time it passed in front of it. But it was like watching crickets next to a streetlamp. Scientists could only see a slight dimming of the light. Dr. James Webb took the study of planets to a new level, allowing scientists to measure starlight passing through the atmosphere and identify the gases present there.

Therefore, Wasp-107b should detect the presence of water vapor and sulfur dioxide, and there should be a smell of burnt matches in the atmosphere. The chemical composition of the cloud was also determined for the first time. The cloud is composed of silicate sand. Something similar to the Earth’s water cycle is occurring on Earth. Silicate vapors rise from the hot lower atmosphere, near 1,000 °C, and cool to form fine sand grains. It’s too small to see. Rain then falls from the resulting clouds, carrying the sand into the lower atmosphere. etc. in yen.

source:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06849-0