This Exoplanet’s Clouds Are Made of Stone!

Amaze Lab

Astrolábos is tidally locked with its host star WASP-43b, meaning it’s just like our Moon and one side is permanently facing away from the light. It’s a hot, fast, wild world and new observations have discovered some even weirder things about this hot Jupiter.

Transcript

00:00according to murphy's law anything that can happen will happen and on exoplanet astrolabos

00:08that's on full display the planet is tidally locked with its host star wasp-43 meaning it's

00:15just like our moon and one side is permanently facing away from the light it's also a gas giant

00:20but so far none of this is that wild however new observations from the james webb space telescope

00:25have revealed that both sides of the gas giant are extreme the exoplanet orbits so close to its host

00:30star a year on it only lasts 19.2 hours that means that the planet is hot categorized as a hot jupiter

00:37because of its gas giant status but it gets even weirder the atmosphere on this extremely hot world

00:42isn't fluffy clouds like we have on earth experts say they're a bit rocky with astronomer laura

00:47creedberg saying about it quote we see a complex inhospitable world with furious winds massive

00:53temperature changes and patchy clouds likely made of rock droplets and just because one side is

00:58always facing away from its host star doesn't mean the other side is much cooler the new james webb

01:03readings revealed that while the sun-facing side is an inferno at 2282 degrees fahrenheit

01:09the permanent dark side of this planet is still a scorching 1112 degrees fahrenheit

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