A group of astronomers studied brown dwarfs to find out how hot exoplanets form clouds of sand. They discovered that sand clouds can just exist in a narrow variety of temperatures.
Water clouds are a typical event on Earth. Then the water gets and cools trapped, forming clouds.
Because it has just the right temperature levels, the Earth can play this trick with water. With various temperatures and chemistries, other worlds can form other sort of clouds. For instance, Jupiter is well-known for its ammonia-rich cloud layers.
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To analyze this more carefully, a team of astronomers studied old data from the retired Spritzer Space Telescope. They looked at brown overshadows, a class of huge item that sits in between stars and planets. Most notably for this research study, brown overshadows are naturally hot enough to support sand clouds.
Previous studies have shown tips of detections of sand clouds, but found nothing conclusive. In the brand-new research, the astronomers grouped private measurements of brown overshadows together, combining the information.
With the combined information, the astronomers found conclusive proof for sand clouds in brown overshadows. But the brown dwarfs just supported sand clouds if they had a temperature level cooler than 3,100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,700 degrees Celsius) and warmer than 1,900 F (1,000 Celcius).
If the brown overshadows are too cool, the silicates cant vaporize, and if theyre too warm, the silicates can condense into clouds.
Some exoplanets remain in the exact same temperature variety, and based on this research study the astronomers think that those worlds are most likely to host sand clouds too.
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Water clouds are a common event on Earth. Then the water gets and cools caught, forming clouds.
With various temperature levels and chemistries, other worlds can form other kinds of clouds. Most notably for this research, brown overshadows are naturally hot enough to support sand clouds.
Astronomers have long presumed that some exoplanets form clouds of silicates, the very same minerals that make up the sand and rocks of the Earths crust. The procedure for making sand clouds is the very same when it comes to water clouds, just with the temperatures ramped up.