The Next-Gen Space 'Scope Spies A "Gritty" World, ~40 Light-Years Away, Orbiting A Pair Of Tightly-Locked Warming Stars...

To be sure, as suggested by our erstwhile commenter, we will post new thoughts on the Mars copter's 48^th flight over the weekend. . . but this morning -- I was transfixed by a pair of warm, tightly orbiting stars about forty light-years off in the night skies. And more precisely, by the gritty, twisting copper-colored mega-planet that orbits them only once every 10,000 years.

The planet, which generates enough heat to melt sand into shiny glass-beads in her upper atmosphere, is four times more distant from the pair, than Pluto is from our Sol. So this is a very slow motion orbital dance, indeed. Here is all the data (with specific scope name redacted, as ever -- but still great science):

. . .Cataloged as VHS 1256 b, the planet is about 40 light-years away and orbits not one, but two stars over a 10,000-year period. “VHS 1256 b is about four times farther from its stars than Pluto is from our Sun, which makes it a great target for [redacted],” Miles said. “That means the planet’s light is not mixed with light from its stars.” Higher up in its atmosphere, where the silicate clouds are churning, temperatures reach a scorching 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit (830 degrees Celsius).

Within those clouds, JWST detected both larger and smaller silicate dust grains, which are shown on a spectrum. “The finer silicate grains in its atmosphere may be more like tiny particles in smoke,” noted co-author Beth Biller of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. “The larger grains might be more like very hot, very small sand particles.”

VHS 1256 b has low gravity compared to more massive brown dwarfs, which means that its silicate clouds can appear and remain higher in its atmosphere where [redacted] can detect them. Another reason its skies are so turbulent is the planet’s age. In astronomical terms, it’s quite young. Only 150 million years have passed since it formed – and it will continue to change and cool over billions of years.

In many ways, the team considers these findings to be the first “coins” pulled out of a spectrum that researchers view as a treasure chest of data. In many ways, they’ve only begun identifying its contents. “We’ve identified silicates, but better understanding which grain sizes and shapes match specific types of clouds is going to take a lot of additional work,” Miles said. “This is not the final word on this planet -- it is the beginning of a large-scale modeling effort to fit JWST’s complex data. . . .”

Now you know. . . grinning ear to ear, here -- have a great weekend one and all.

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