{"id":911781,"date":"2026-07-04T10:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T10:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/911781\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T10:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T10:30:17","slug":"salt-clouds-discovered-on-iconic-pink-planet-as-scientists-finally-get-a-good-look-at-frosty-orb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/911781\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt clouds discovered on iconic ‘Pink Planet’ as scientists finally get a good look at frosty orb"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have discovered salt clouds surrounding the notable \u201cPink Planet<\/a>,\u201d according to a new study released by astronomers at Northwestern University.<\/p>\n

Discovered in 2013, the vibrantly colored planet<\/a> is one of the coldest known celestial objects ever directly imaged, and until recently has been too faint to examine from Earth\u2019s<\/a> light.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, recent observations by the\u00a0James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>\u00a0have provided evidence for a theory scientists first hypothesized over 15 years ago: that the \u201cPink Planet\u201d had salt clouds within its\u00a0atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pink Planet is the coldest companion ever discovered using ground-based instruments,\u201d Northwestern\u2019s Aneesh Baburaj, who led the study, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany teams all around the world performed follow-up observations to study its light, but it was too faint for ground-based instruments. That made it a perfect target,\u201d Baburaj continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we finally obtained its spectrum, it immediately looked interesting. But once we started digging deeper into the data, we realized it was not like anything we had analyzed before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists have discovered salt clouds surrounding the notable \u201cPink Planet,\u201d according to a new study released by astronomers at Northwestern University. NASA<\/p>\n

Recent observations by the\u00a0James Webb Space Telescope\u00a0have provided evidence for a theory scientists first hypothesized over 15 years ago: that the \u201cPink Planet\u201d had salt clouds within its\u00a0atmosphere. Northrup Grumman<\/p>\n

According to the study, the data from the planet revealed a mix of water vapor, methane<\/a>, carbon dioxide, ammonia and other molecules.<\/p>\n

When the researchers tried to reconstruct the simulated atmosphere, it did not match the planetary observations unless there were unique, salty features in them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ran simulations with clouds, and the results aligned with what we know about cold planets,\u201d Baburaj said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe tried three different types of clouds, and salt clouds fit best. When we accounted for salt clouds, it subdued the signature of molecules hidden deeper in the companion\u2019s atmosphere. Then, the results became physically possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA<\/a>\u00a0said the Pink Planet was first discovered in 2013, and is known as GJ 504 b. The exoplanet orbits a sun-like star about 57 light-years from\u00a0Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A plane traveling about 600 miles per hour would be there in 64 million years, NASA<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

NASA\u00a0said the Pink Planet was first discovered in 2013, and is known as GJ 504 b. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we could travel to this giant planet, we would see a world still glowing from the heat of its formation with a color reminiscent of a dark cherry blossom, a dull magenta,\u201d\u00a0NASA said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite its nickname, researchers aren\u2019t certain that it is actually a planet.<\/p>\n

This discovery could help scientists unlock other mysteries about cold planets, such as\u00a0Jupiter<\/a>, which has clouds of ammonia ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time we\u2019ve found that salt clouds are critical to explaining the spectrum of an object,\u201d Baburaj said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good reminder to account for clouds in our models.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have discovered salt clouds surrounding the notable \u201cPink Planet,\u201d according to a new study released by astronomers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":911782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[4514,2846,916,27902,159,933,67,132,68,107],"class_list":["post-911781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-discovery","tag-nasa","tag-planets","tag-science","tag-scientists","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116861247837084532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}