New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have given us direct confirmation that some alien worlds have clouds of rock.
), brown dwarfs can fuse deuterium, or heavy hydrogen – hydrogen with a proton and a neutron in the nucleus, instead of just a single proton.
This means that, unlike exoplanets, brown dwarfs emit their own heat and light. It's much less than that of stars, obviously, but we can detect it directly, especially in the infrared wavelengths in which JWST specializes. This works because different elements absorb and re-emit light at different wavelengths. Scientists can look at the spectrum to see dimmer and brighter features, and determine the elements that cause them.
"Water, methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sodium, and potassium are observed in several portions of the JWST spectrum based on comparisons from template brown dwarf spectra, molecular opacities, and atmospheric models,"The carbon monoxide feature, the researchers say, is the clearest seen yet. And they also detected, as they hoped, clouds – long hypothesized clouds of silicate particles in a thick layer, with a submicron grain size.
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