James Webb telescope discovers salt clouds around the mysterious Pink Planet

An illustration of the Pink Planet, also known as GJ 504 b. PIC COURTESY/NASA

Astronomers have uncovered an extraordinary feature surrounding the universe's famous ‘Pink Planet': skies filled with salt clouds.

For over a decade, as one of the coldest planetary-mass companions ever directly imaged, it is so faint that ground-based telescopes have struggled to analyse the light reflected from its atmosphere.

Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), however, finally provided a clearer view, revealing an atmosphere packed with unusual chemistry and previously unseen salty clouds, confirming an idea scientists first proposed more than 15 years ago.

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