James Webb telescope detects dust storm on distant world
A raging dust storm has been observed on a planet outside our Solar System for the first time
It was detected on the exoplanet known as VHS 1256b, which is about 40 light-years from Earth.
It took the remarkable capabilities of the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to make the discovery.
The dust particles are silicates – small grains comprising silicon and oxygen, which form the basis of most rocky minerals.
But the storm detected by Webb isn’t quite the same phenomenon you would get in an arid, desert region on our planet. It’s more of a rocky mist.
“It’s kind of like if you took sand grains, but much finer. We’re talking silicate grains the size of smoke particles,” explained Prof Beth Biller from the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, UK.
“That’s what the clouds on VHS 1256b would be like, but a lot hotter. This planet is a hot, young object. The cloud-top temperature is maybe similar to the temperature of a candle flame,” she told BBC News.
VHS 1256b was first identified by the UK-developed Vista telescope in Chile in 2015.
It’s what’s termed a “super Jupiter” – a planet similar to the gas giant in our own Solar System, but a lot bigger, perhaps 12 to 18 times the mass.
It circles a couple of stars at great distance – about four times the distance that Pluto is from our Sun.
Earlier observations of VHS 1256b showed it to be red-looking, hinting that it might have dust in its atmosphere. The Webb study confirms it.
“It’s fascinating because it illustrates how different clouds on another planet can be from the water vapour clouds we are familiar with on the Earth,” said Prof Biller.
“We see carbon monoxide (CO) and methane in the atmosphere, which is indicative of it being hot and turbulent, with material being drawn up from deep.
“There are probably multiple layers of silicate grains. The ones that we’re seeing are some of the very, very fine grains that are higher up in the atmosphere, but there may be bigger grains deeper down in the atmosphere.”
Telescopes have previously detected silicates in so-called brown dwarfs. These are essentially star-like objects that have failed to ignite properly. But this is a first for a planet-sized object.
To make the detection, Webb used its Mid-Infrared Instrument (Miri), part-built in the UK, and its Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NirSpec).
They didn’t take pretty pictures of the planet, at least not in this instance. What they did was tease apart the light coming from VHS 1256b into its component colours as a way to discern the composition of the atmosphere.
“JWST is the only telescope that can measure all these molecular and dust features together,” said Miri co-principal investigator Prof Gillian Wright, who directs the STFC UK Astronomy Technology Centre, also in Edinburgh.
“The dynamic picture of the atmosphere of VHS 1256b provided by this study is a prime example of the discoveries enabled by using the advanced capabilities of Miri and NirSpec together.”
JWST’s primary mission is to observe the pioneer stars and galaxies that first shone just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. But a key objective is to investigate exoplanets. In Miri and NirSpec it has the tools to study their atmospheres in unprecedented detail.
Scientists hope they might even be able to tell whether some exoplanets have conditions suitable to host life.
Astronomers are reporting Webb’s observations of VHS 1256b in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
James Webb is a collaborative project of the US, European and Canadian space agencies. It was launched in December 2021 and is regarded as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.
See more here bbc.co.uk
Header image: NASA / ESA / CSA / J. OLMSTED (STSCI)
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
Study the header and note the while image of what I assume is the nearest stars referred to in the text. I remember reading that the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) measures (detects) the intensity of both visible solar radiation and the invisible (to our eyes) infrared radiation. So even if the dust cloud is considered to be “hot” the dust. We observe that radiation being emitted toward us from stars (our sun) is white which is made up of PHOTONS of different visible colors.
But what are the colors of the invisible Infrared photons we cannot see with our. eyes? Are they really red as shown in the image of this “massive” planet?
Have a good day
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Gary Brown
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Sep 7, 2022 James Webb Telescope FINALLY Proves The Big Bang Theory Is Wrong!
The James Webb Space Telescope was eagerly awaited before its launch last year! However, now that the most powerful and most expensive ever telescope is in operation, the JWST is threatening to turn astronomy upside down with a single finding! The latest pictures from the JWST have proven the Big Bang theory did not happen, sending the scientific community into a frenzy! What are these latest pictures from JWST?
https://youtu.be/GyHxeJKjMP8
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T. C. Clark
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Om other space news…it has been discovered that our sun emits 7 times as many gamma rays than previously believed and the emission is very irregular instead of steady emission. Knowledge of the sun is incomplete but supposedly there is no doubt that CO2 is solely responsible or global warming.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi T.C.,
You must know why YOU seem to ignore what I have written here at PSI. Please share what you KNOW!
Have a good day
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Herb Rose
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Hi jerry,
The Webb telescope does not see visible light, only IR. The reason for IR and radio telescopes is that those bands of EM radiation travel further than shorter wavelength, even though, according to Planck’s law they have less energy. Since what wavelengths are absorbed by objects is determined by the bonds of the objects more objects absorb the shorter wavelengths and emit energy with longer wavelengths allowing longer wavelengths to travel further. The Webb telescope was constructed to see objects beyond the range of visible light.
Herb
(Corrected your e-mail spelling error) SUNMOD
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Sunmod and Herb,
Sunmod, you are really fast because at my end my comment was posted by the period I term nearly immediately.
Herb, what is that white image in the header? Looks like the star described in the text.
Have a good day
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Herb Rose
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Jerry,
It is a computer generated image converting IR into visible light just as they do for radio telescope’s images.
Herb
Jerry Krause
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Hi Herb,
Thank you very much for correcting me. I have a couple of questions whose answers I could not discover about the information I read.
I understand that small gaseous atoms and molecules would very weakly SCATTER IR radiation. Do you agree?
I understand that intensity of the IR radiation is being used to determine the temperatures of the matter emitting the IR radiations being measured.. Do you agree?
Hence that matter of a star (our sun) is very, very great. Hence the white visible color of the sun and stars which our eyes can directly SEE. Do you agree?
Hence, the reddest colors of the planet is being emitted by matter whose temperature is that of a metal rod which emits the reddest color our eyes see. Do you agree?
I have more questions but I need to go to a document to compose them/. So I will submit these now to see if I am on the right path before going further..
Have a good day
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Herb Rose
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Hi Jerry,
You need to think about the difference between objects reflecting, emitting, and transmitting light. Mars is red but it is not red hot. The sun is not only emitting visible light but also gamma radiation, x-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, and longer wavelengths that our eyes cannot see. Different objects absorb and emit different wavelengths depending on their structure while other wavelengths are transmitted or reflected.
The gases in the atmosphere are transparent to the visible spectrum hence that light coming from the sun passes right through it unaffected. The N2 and O2 absorb 90%+ of the uv light emitted by the sun. This cause the atoms in the molecules to vibrate across the bonds which in turn become kinetic energy or IR radiation. That is matter converting absorbed energy into longer wavelengths. It is also possible to heat O2 and N2 without having them absorb energy as they equalize with the energy field they are in. If the absorbed energy of an oxygen molecule exceeds 450,000 joule/mole the molecules will split into oxygen atoms and atoms will radiate IR radiation that matches the energy field they are in. The atoms are transmitting of energy of the field, they are not absorbing it.
It is also possible for objects to reflect a particular wavelength of energy. A vase painted red may not be hot but reflecting that wavelength of the light striking it. A red vase of glass need not be hot but transmitting the red light striking it. The vase may also emit red light when it is heated even though at a lower temperature it is a different color.
The full moon appears red when rising and setting because the atmosphere is absorbing the shorter wavelengths. It will appear white when overhead due to it reflecting light coming from the sun. During a total eclipse it appears red because it is emitting the energy it has absorbed as heat.
The computer is taking different wavelengths in the IR band and representing them with a wavelength in the visible spectrum.
Herb
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Herb,
Why didn’t you answer my direct and simple question with first an yes or no?
Have a good day
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Herb Rose
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This image looks remarkably like an upside down Jupiter. It is an image of Jupiter from the past where the bending of light as it passes through the varying electric and magnetic fields throughout the galaxy has returned to the solar system being magnified and inverted due to lensing.by those fields. Have a look at a current image of Jupiter.
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Howdy
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Jupiter vs VHS 1256b
http://www.exoplanetkyoto.org/exohtml/VHS_1256-1257_b.html
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Howdy
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“This illustration conceptualizes the swirling clouds identified by the James Webb Space Telescope in the atmosphere of exoplanet VHS 1256 b.”
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/105/01GVGGJYM8E4JNK4VBQ2C77VJX
Illustration…
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
I see this gaseous planet is similar to Jupiter down to a similar reddish spot. Except that Herb has just recently written that Jupiter is only composed of gaseous matter and no solid dust which this planet has a dust storm occurring according to its description. I plan to transfer a link to this article to today’s article about Jupiter in case today’s readers can compare Jupiter’s image with this this image.
Have a good day
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Herb Rose
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Learn how to read.
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