Webb Telescope Detects Cloudy Mornings And Clear Nights On Alien World

InnovationScienceWebb Telescope Detects Cloudy Mornings And Clear Nights On Alien WorldByJamie Carter,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. An award-winning reporter writing about stargazing and the night sky.Follow AuthorMay 21, 2026, 02:00pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Artistic representation of WASP-94A b, a gas giant in the Microscopium constellation. Clouds build as air flows over the dark side of the planet, reaching a large swell by daybreak. The clouds dissipate on the dayside, leaving clear skies in the early evening.Hannah Robbins/Johns Hopkins UniversityAstronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a striking weather cycle on a distant so-called “Hot Jupiter” exoplanet, revealing cloudy mornings and clear evenings on a world 689 light-years from Earth. The findings offer one of the clearest looks yet at the atmosphere of a giant exoplanet and could reshape how scientists study alien worlds.Get To Know WASP-94A bThe planet, known as WASP-94A b, is a gas giant orbiting extremely close to its host star in the constellation Microscopium, which in May becomes visible low in the southern sky just before sunrise, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. Hot Jupiter planets orbit even closer to their stars than Mercury orbits the sun, so they are much hotter and are exposed to more radiation than most exoplanets.Researchers found that on WASP-94A b, mineral clouds form overnight on the planet's cooler side before dissipating under intense daytime heat. The study, led by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and published in the journal Science, represents one of the first detections of cloud cycling on a Hot Jupiter exoplanet.According to NASA, WASP-94A b was first discovered in 2014 and has a mass half that of Jupiter, taking 4 days to orbit its star. Its star is part of a binary system, where t...