NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected churning clouds of dust on a distant planet that orbits two stars
. Known as VHS 1256 b, the exoplanet is about 40 light-years away from Earth and orbits at a long distance from its stars, ideal conditions for fine grained observation with Webb, according to Brittany Miles, a fellow at the University of Arizona and coauthor of the new research. “VHS 1256 b is about four times farther from its stars than Pluto is from our Sun, which makes it a great target for Webb,” Miles said in a news release.
” The research also team projected that the silicates swirling in these clouds periodically get too heavy and rain into the depths of the planet’s atmosphere. VHS 1256 b has relatively low gravity, meaning that its silicate clouds remain higher in its atmosphere, where it’s easier for Webb to detect them. Another reason its skies are so turbulent is the planet’s young age — 150 million years old. For reference, Earth is 4.5 billion years old.
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