Layers of clouds, made up of hot dust and droplets of molten iron, have been detected on a planet-like object found 75 light years away from Earth.
The planet-like object named PSO J318.5-22, is about the same size as Jupiter but with six times the mass and floats freely out on its own in space in a cold sunless world.
The Daily Mirror reports:
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The planet-like object, PSO J318.5-22, was already considered one of the strangest ever discovered.
Around the same size as Jupiter, it floats freely out on its own in space and has no parent star.
Scientists estimate that it is only around 20 million years old.
Astronomers from the University of Edinburgh used a telescope in Chile to show that PSO J318.5-22 is covered in multiple layers of thick and thin cloud.
Without the dazzling light of a parent star, the team was able to carry out accurate measurements of the object’s varying brightness.
They estimated temperatures inside its clouds to exceed 800C.
The clouds were made up of hot dust and molten iron.
