Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have for the first time detected tiny quartz crystals containing silica — a common mineral on Earth — within the atmosphere of a blazing hot exoplanet.

This is a transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-17 b captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s innovative Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on 12–13 March 2023. It ...

NASA's Webb Telescope has detected quartz in the air of a giant planet 1,300 light-years away. The Orionid meteor shower peaks this weekend. The atmosphere of the hot gas giant planet WASP-17 b, ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. An artist’s impression of the exoplanet WASP-17b, which may contain clouds of quartz in its atmosphere. (NASA, ESA, CSA, and R.

If you could see the clouds on WASP-17b, they might glitter as starlight reflects off the facets of billions of microscopic quartz crystals. As gas giant WASP-17b crossed in front of its star, a team ...

What sights could an exoplanet’s atmosphere create that would mimic Earth’s own visual wonders? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as a team of ...

Hannah Wakeford is an Associate Professor at the University of Bristol and receives funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee formerly ...