fromNature
1 week agoSee the clouds streaming and vanishing around this planet - 690 light years away
The telescope revealed tiny differences in the starlight's spectrum between the start, middle and end of the planet's transit in front of its star. The measurements showed that during each transit, the part of the atmosphere that crosses first in front of the star is covered with thick clouds - probably made of droplets of minerals rather than water, given that the planet's dayside temperature is at least 1,600 kelvin. But by the end of the transit, the trailing part of the atmosphere that crosses last is clear.
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