Stunning Direct Images of Alien Worlds Are Detailed Enough to Reveal Clouds
New images from the JWST are about as close as we've ever come to seeing the sky of an alien world outside the Solar System.
Direct images of a gas giant exoplanet orbiting a star called YSES-1 have revealed clouds of fine sand drifting high up in its atmosphere. What's more, similar observations of a neighboring world suggest it is surrounded by a large, swirling disk rich with olivine, a mineral that can form the gemstone peridot here on Earth.
"Everything is exciting about these two results," astrophysicist and lead author Kielan Hoch of the Space Telescope Science Institute told ScienceAlert.
"The observations were novel as we could observe 'two for the price of one' with JWST NIRSpec, and discovering two major planetary features on each object."
Planets outside our Solar System are elusive beasts. They are extremely difficult to see directly; they are very far away, and small and dim, obscured by the blazing light of the stars they orbit.
Of the nearly 6,000 confirmed to date, the vast, vast majority have only been detected and measured indirectly – that is, based on changes their presence evokes in the light of their host stars. Only around 80 exoplanets have been seen directly.
There's a lot you can tell about a planet from the way it tugs on its surrounds or eclipses its star. But direct observations of the light it emits can reveal far more. Even so, it takes a powerful instrument to extract a signal from the faint light of even the closest exoplanets.
The YSES-1 system is only 306 light-years away and contains two known planets; YSES-1b, which is closer to the star at a distance of 160 astronomical units, and YSES-1c, at 320 astronomical units. YSES-1c is around six times the mass of Jupiter, while YSES-1b is the larger of the two at around 14 times Jupiter's mass, putting it right on the mass boundary between planets and brown dwarfs.
Prior direct observations of this system suggested that the world may have interesting atmospheric properties, but the instruments involved lacked the power to detect them.
Cue JWST.
"With the NIRSpec instrument on JWST we are able to get images of the planets at thousands of wavelengths at once. The images can be reduced to produce spectra, which is thermal light coming from the planet itself," Hoch explained.
"As the light passes through the atmosphere of the exoplanet, some of the light will get absorbed by molecules and cause dips in brightness of the planet. This is how we are able to tell what the atmospheres are made of!"
The results? The most detailed spectral dataset of a multi-planet system compiled to date.
Both exoplanets, the researchers found, showed evidence of water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane in their atmospheres – all of which are relatively common atmospheric components. It's where they diverge that things start to get interesting.
"For YSES-1c, we see lots of molecular features from water, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and methane. At longer wavelengths, we see absorption caused by silicate particles, which has a different spectral shape," Hoch said.
"We use laboratory data of different particles and structures to model which silicates fit the data best and determine other properties of those particles. Our models show that there could be small silicate particles high up in the atmosphere that can contain small amounts of iron that rains out of the clouds. However, our models also show that a mixture of only silicates can also fit the data."
No such spectra feature was observed for YSES-1b, but something else emerged: the signature of small grains of olivine in a disk around the exoplanet.
Olivine is a mineral that forms in volcanic conditions here on Earth; particularly fine gemstone-quality examples form peridot. Olivine is also found in meteorites, so it seems the mineral can form easily in molten rock situations.
However, it shouldn't be seen in dust form around YSES-1b. Dust settling is an efficient process expected to take a maximum of about 5 million years, Hoch explained. The YSES-1 system is estimated to be around 16.7 million years old. It's possible that the olivine-rich dust is debris from a collision between objects orbiting near YSES-1b – which means the observations came at a very lucky point in cosmic time.
Both sets of results are spectacular.
"We hoped to detect clouds in YSES-1c's atmosphere as its spectral type is theorized to have a cloudy atmosphere. But, when we saw the feature, it was wildly different from other silicate features seen in brown dwarfs," Hoch said.
"We did NOT expect to see evidence for a disk around the inner planet YSES-1b. That was certainly a surprise."
All the best astrophysical observations raise at least as many questions as they answer. YSES-1 is no exception. The disk around YSES-1b is one big one. We also don't know enough about exoplanetary atmospheres, or how long these objects take to form. Ongoing work to directly study the atmospheres of other exoplanets will help fill in some of these gaps in our knowledge.
"I also am excited about the result as this research was led by early career scientists. I was a graduate student when I proposed to use JWST to image this planetary system, and JWST had not launched yet and was not designed for looking at exoplanets," Hoch said.
"The first five authors of the manuscript range from first year graduate student to postdoctoral fellow. I believe this highlights the need to support early career scientists, and that is a result most exciting for me."
The research has been published in Nature.
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Once-weekly subcutaneous amycretin treatment escalated up to 60 mg appeared tolerable with a safety profile consistent with other GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonists.1,2 The number of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) increased in a dose-dependent manner, were mostly gastrointestinal, and were comparable to the rate and profile of TEAEs reported in early-phase studies of GLP-1 receptor, GLP-1 receptor/gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) receptor, and amylin receptor agonists.1,2 The majority of TEAEs were mild to moderate in severity and resolved by the end of the study period.1,2 Of the participants who discontinued the trial, the majority were due to non-TEAE reasons.1,2 'As pioneers in obesity innovation, we are exploring multiple biological pathways to develop potentially transformative medicines that support the individual needs and preferences of people with obesity on their weight loss journey towards overall improved health,' said Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president for Development at Novo Nordisk . 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Subcutaneous amycretin Phase 1b/2a trial – The trial investigated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and proof-of-concept of once-weekly subcutaneous amycretin in 125 people with overweight or obesity. The trial was a combined single ascending dose, multiple ascending dose and dose-response trial investigating three different maintenance doses with a total treatment duration of up to 36 weeks. About Novo Nordisk Novo Nordisk is a leading global healthcare company founded in 1923 and headquartered in Denmark. Our purpose is to drive change to defeat serious chronic diseases built upon our heritage in diabetes. We do so by pioneering scientific breakthroughs, expanding access to our medicines, and working to prevent and ultimately cure disease. Novo Nordisk employs about 77,400 people in 80 countries and markets its products in around 170 countries. For more information, visit , Facebook , Instagram , X , LinkedIn and YouTube . Contacts for further information _______________________ References The Lancet: Dahl K, Toubro, S, Dey S, et al. Amycretin, a novel, unimolecular GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist administered subcutaneously: Results of a randomised, controlled, phase 1b/2a study. Dahl, K, et al. (2025). Amycretin, a Novel, Unimolecular GLP-1 and Amylin Receptor Agonist: Results of a Phase 1b/2a Clinical Trial. Poster 2002-LB. American Diabetes Association (ADA) 85th Scientific Sessions, Chicago, US, June 20 – 23, 2025. The Lancet: Gasiorek A, Heydorn A, Gabery S, et al. Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of the first-in-class GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist, amycretin: a first-in-human, phase 1, randomised, placebo-controlled study. Novo Nordisk Company Announcement. Novo Nordisk to advance subcutaneous and oral amycretin for weight management into phase 3 clinical development. Available at: Attachment Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash GlobeNewswire provides press release distribution services globally, with substantial operations in North America and Europe.
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When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. On Monday (June 23), the public and the wider science community will get their first look at images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This will arguably mark the biggest moment in astronomy since the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) were revealed in the summer of was built by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science on the mountain Cerro Pachón, high in the dry atmosphere of northern Chile. When its operational, the observatory will construct what Director of Rubin Observatory's construction, Željko Ivezić, described as the "greatest movie of all time and the most informative map of the night sky ever assembled." The 8.4-meter telescope, equipped with the largest digital camera ever, will conduct the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), capturing the entire southern sky over Earth every 3 nights. To get you properly prepped for the first images from Rubin, spoke to an array of scientists who will work with the observatory, as well as others who are just excited to see what images and data this groundbreaking instrument is set to reveal. However, be warned: they're tight-lipped about just what images we will see."Until the images are revealed next week, all I can say is that people are going to be amazed at what we're able to see already," Andrés Alejandro Plazas Malagón, a researcher at Stanford University and part of the Rubin Observatory's Community Science Team, told "I am excited about using the largest digital camera in the world for astronomy — the LSSTCam, with 3.2 gigapixels — to survey the entire sky visible from its location in Chile over a 10-year period. This is something that has never been done before. "We will be able to gather more data than any galaxy survey to date to help answer fundamental open questions in astronomy." Mireia Montes is a Ramón y Cajal Fellow at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) who will use Rubin to track stars drifting between galaxies via the faint "intracluster light" they emit."Rubin is exciting because it is going to be huge! Surveys are normally limited by how much area they cover or how deep they go, following a method called the 'wedding cake strategy'," Montes said."This means they cover a large area but are not very detailed, or small areas in great detail. Large areas are good for having lots of galaxies, but depth is better for seeing faint things like the details of galaxies or very distant galaxies. You usually choose whether to go for depth or area. Rubin is going to provide both depth and area! This will help us to see things that are not usually very clear. "The general public will see that the night sky is not as dark as we see it. In fact, when you look at deep images, you can see that there are objects (like stars and galaxies) everywhere you look. I think people are going to be amazed by the number of objects in this image, just as we were by the Hubble Deep Field ... but on a very different scale, as Rubin's camera is huge. Rubin is going to show us the universe in a totally new way!" The wide-field view of Rubin will see the LSST gather data that could finally solve lingering mysteries surrounding dark energy, the force that accounts for around 68% of our universe's matter-energy content and causes the expansion of the cosmos to accelerate. It is somewhat startling to consider that despite all of humanity's advances in science, we still only know what around 5% of the universe's contents are. All stars, planets, moons, animals, plants, and inanimate objects, everything we see is "baryonic matter" composed of atoms, but there is a lot more to the universe than this. The rest of the matter-energy content is known as the "dark universe." Rubin has the right stuff to shine a light on the dark universe, which is divided into dark energy and dark matter, both of which account for about 17% of the universe's matter and energy but remains invisible because it doesn't interact with light. "Studies of dark energy and dark matter are highly complementary with the Rubin Observatory and its LSST," Plazas Malagón said. "For dark energy, the LSST will measure the shapes and properties of billions of galaxies — an order of magnitude more than current photometric galaxy surveys — across cosmic time. "This will allow Rubin to probe the growth of the large-scale structure of the universe, namely the cosmic web, which is dominated by dark matter, and the expansion history of the universe." Plazas Malagón explained that the LSST will revolutionize the study of dark matter by mapping the sky with unprecedented depth and precision. This will enable the detection of the smallest dark matter halos that surround small satellite dwarf galaxies and wrap around stellar streams. The observatory will also use a phenomenon first predicted in 1916 by Einstein called "gravitational lensing" to investigate the distribution of dark matter through large galaxies."It will test dark matter properties such as self-interactions, warm or ultra-light masses, and the presence of compact objects like primordial black holes," Plazas Malagón continued. "The LSST will also constrain exotic dark matter models — including axion-like particles — through stellar population measurements, and provide high-resolution maps of large-scale structure to explore how dark matter and dark energy interact. "Combined with other experiments, LSST will offer powerful, complementary tests of dark matter's fundamental nature." Among the most curious dark energy findings since its discovery in 1998 are hints from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) that this mysterious force is weakening over time. The wide-field view of Rubin could help confirm this, which would prompt revisions to the standard model of cosmology, or Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM), a model built on a constant dark energy strength. "The LSST will collect vastly more data, which will help determine whether this is a real effect or just a fluctuation," Plazas Malagón explained. "In addition to studying dark energy, LSST will allow us to test the standard model of cosmology in other ways—examining the cold dark matter and dark energy hypotheses in the context of alternative models, including modified theories of gravity." Luz Ángela García Peñaloza is a cosmologist in Bogotá, Colombia, specializing in dark energy. She explained why she is so excited about Rubin, its first images, and its ongoing mission. "Rubin's first image release is an incredible milestone for the astronomical community. This observatory will cover the largest patch of the sky ever, capturing the light of approximately 20 billion galaxies. Rubin (or LSST) is not only an impressive telescope that will complement the cosmic cartography we are doing with other galaxy surveys, but also a fantastic piece of engineering that will be online for the next 10 years. We don't know yet what kind of images they will release on Monday, but I'm looking forward to seeing a deep field with tens of thousands of galaxies and stars. Remarkably, Vera Rubin is going to observe many, many galaxies in one night; thus, I expect to see beautiful images of the sky. Rubin will help us constrain the Large Scale Structure of the universe and, along the same lines, the nature and dynamics of dark energy." While Rubin will excel at studying galaxies en masse, some scientists will be interested in using its detailed view to look at what lies between those galaxies, namely, faint intracuster light. "These processes are linked to the formation of clusters of galaxies, which are the largest structures bound by gravity in the universe," Mireia Montes is a Ramón y Cajal Fellow at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), told "Our understanding of the processes that form intracluster light is limited by small datasets. With Rubin, however, we will finally have the depth and numbers required to understand this light much better." Montes added that the filters employed by Rubin will enable astronomers to determine the type of stars between galaxies that give rise to intracluster light. That should then lead to the revelation of the origins of these "orphan" stars and how they came to drift between galaxies. Rubin may also excel in spotting another type of faint stellar outcast, so-called "failed stars" or brown dwarfs. These are bodies that form like stars from a collapsing cloud of gas and dust, but fail to gather enough mass to trigger the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium in their cores, the process that defines what a main sequence star infrared vision of Rubin's Simonyi Survey Telescope combined with its wide field of view and ability to see deep into space, will make it the perfect instrument for discovering faint, infrared-emitting objects like brown dwarfs. In fact, researchers have predicted that Rubin could detect thousands of brown dwarfs in the Milky Way, increasing our catalog of these "failed stars" by 20 times. That could help us better understand the mass limit at which a star "succeeds" and becomes a star rather than a brown dwarf, and thus how our galaxy took shape. Giuseppe Donatiello is an amateur astronomer from Italy who, thus far, has discovered a staggering 11 new dwarf galaxies in the local neighborhood of the Milky Way."Thanks to deep surveys, important discoveries have come in the Local Group, in particular, bizarre and decidedly unconventional objects have emerged. Rubin will certainly bring other similar discoveries, pushing their detection further," Donatiello said."The ability to go very deep will allow us to better define the timing in cosmic evolution, from the first stars to the current galaxies. Having such an instrument at our disposal does not limit the possibilities of observation, and we must have an open mind to anything new."Nature is more imaginative than we are!" This cursory list above is far from the extent of the phenomena that will be investigated by Rubin as it conducts the LSST. "There will be major improvements in almost every area of astronomy," Montes said. "Understanding better our own Milky Way, the evolution of galaxies, finding more low-mass galaxies that will allow us to understand better how galaxy formation occurs at those masses, mapping the mass of our universe, and therefore understanding better our universe." Plazas Malagón added that some of the other key questions the groundbreaking observatory could answer include: Are there undiscovered planets in the outer solar system (e.g., Planet Nine or Planet X)? What explosive and transient events occur in the universe? How do stars evolve and die? What are the electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave and neutrino events? What is the structure of the Milky Way's halo, disk, and bulge? What is the local galactic neighborhood like? Are there hazardous asteroids or comets that could impact Earth? Phew! Little wonder scientists (and are excited! Related Stories: — How the Rubin observatory could detect thousands of 'failed stars' — World's largest digital camera to help new Vera Rubin Observatory make a 'time-lapse record of the universe' (video) — Rubin Observatory aces 1st image tests, gets ready to use world's largest digital camera "I'm thrilled to see what the scientific community will do with this data," Alejandro Plazas concluded. "I'm especially excited about the new questions that will emerge — questions we haven't even imagined yet. We've built a discovery machine, and that's incredibly exciting to me. "One of the most exciting aspects is the unexpected discoveries that lie ahead!"
