About 200 light-years from Earth, the Weber Telescope spotted a planet raining in sand.

CTOnews.com, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) astronomers recently used the James Webb Space Telescope to take a closer look at a gaseous giant exoplanet called WASP-107b, using spectral analysis to reveal a strange world: clouds and rain made of silicate sand, charred smells of sulfur dioxide, hot temperatures and strong winds.

WASP-107b was first discovered in 2017 as a gas giant similar to Neptune and currently orbits a star about 211 light-years from Earth, about 200 light-years from Earth.

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope's mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) to measure and analyze wavelengths and found large amounts of sand, water and sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere. To astronomers' surprise, methane was not detected in the atmosphere.

This new discovery is exciting because it continues to let us know more about the exoplanets that make up our universe. The findings are published in Nature, with CTOnews.com attaching the address of the paper: Dyrek, A., Min, M., Decin, L. et al. SO2, silicate clouds, but no CH4 detected in a warm Neptune. Nature (2023). Https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06849-0