Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2023

30 MAY-JUNE 2023 ASTRO PUBLISHING Arizona, also made extraordinarily clear detections of water, methane and carbon monoxide with Webb’s data, and found evidence of carbon dioxide. This is the largest number of molecules ever identified all at once on a planet outside our solar system. Cataloged as VHS 1256 b, the planet is about 40 light-years away and or- bits 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, Webb spots swirling, gritty clouds on remote planet by NASA/ESA/CSA Claire Blome Christine Pulliam R esearchers observing with NASA’s James Webb Space Tel- escope have pinpointed silicate cloud features in a distant planet’s atmosphere. The atmosphere is con- stantly rising, mixing, and moving during its 22-hour day, bringing hot- ter material up and pushing colder material down. The resulting bright- ness changes are so dramatic that it is the most variable planetary-mass object known to date. The team, led by Brittany Miles of the University of