Webb Telescope Discovers 'Pink Planet' Surrounded by Salty Clouds

Astronomers studying the distant "Pink Planet" have made a surprising discovery: its atmosphere is filled with clouds made of salt. Using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, a team led by Northwestern University identified a salty cloud atmosphere unlike any previously observed.

The findings, published in The Astronomical Journal, focus on GJ504b, a celestial body formally classified as a "planetary-mass companion." Discovered in 2013, it orbits a sun-like star approximately 57 light-years from Earth. While its temperature of 550 degrees Fahrenheit is hot by Earth standards, it is considered extremely cold for a giant planet, as exoplanets typically range from 1,000 to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

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We were very surprised, because people have theorized that salt clouds might exist in the atmospheres of companions at these temperatures of, say, 500 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit, but people in general just don't observe any kind of signatures of clouds in such temperatures, so we were very surprised

"We were very surprised, because people have theorized that salt clouds might exist in the atmospheres of companions at these temperatures of, say, 500 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit, but people in general just don't observe any kind of signatures of clouds in such temperatures, so we were very surprised," said Aneesh Baburaj, the study's leader and a postdoctoral associate at Northwestern's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics.

GJ504b is estimated to be 25 times the mass of Jupiter and is between 2.5 billion and 4 billion years old. Its age contributes to its lower temperature, as giant planets cool over time. This lower temperature, while making it difficult for ground-based telescopes to study, proved advantageous for the Webb telescope. Researchers found that their observations only made sense when salt clouds were included in their atmospheric models, indicating they significantly affected the light detected by the telescope. Baburaj noted the ease of detection with Webb compared to previous near-impossible attempts from Earth.

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We were really, really amazed by how easy it was to detect with James Webb, as opposed to like it had been close to impossible from the ground