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- So think of all the stars that you see in the night sky,
and imagine planets like our own orbiting around them.
Those are exoplanets.
An exoplanet is a planet that orbits another star
other than the sun.
- It's important to study exoplanets
because exoplanets actually teach us a lot
about planets in general,
how they form, how they evolve, where they've come from.
And so examining the extremes of exoplanet environments
can tell us a lot about our own Earth.
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We can learn so much about exoplanets
from just their clouds.
Exoplanet clouds are quite simply clouds in an exoplanet.
- [Hannah] The same as our clouds,
liquid or solid droplets suspended in an atmosphere.
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Under those conditions, the clouds of water couldn't exist.
Instead, these clouds are made of what you're standing on.
They're made of rock.
Melt that under high temperatures, and you get molten rock,
liquid glass, molten iron, rubies and sapphires,
that we have here on Earth.
How can you not love exoplanet clouds
when they're made of gems and jewels?
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- In the case of exoplanets,
the conditions might be a lot more extreme.
There might be more extreme temperatures, extreme pressures,
extreme rotation rate, extreme winds.
- Here on Earth, the fastest winds are recorded
in hurricanes at about 250 miles per hour.
Exoplanet winds have been measured
to over 5,000 miles per hour.
These winds are carrying those clouds.
Molten glass, molten iron being blown around the planets.
You'd be swept up in the storm and carried around the planet
out of control.
A truly horrible place to go.
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The James Webb Space Telescope is going to revolutionize
the way that we can view exoplanet atmospheres.
It is an infrared telescope.
That's looking at the colors just beyond
what our eyes can see in the red.
- [Tiffany] It will have a broader wavelength coverage
and spectroscopic sensitivity.
And so we'll actually be able to detect the chemistry
from the clouds themselves.
- [Hannah] We can start to truly understand
and detect these clouds
and tell you a little bit more
about the gems and jewels of exoplanet atmospheres.
- If the past has taught us anything,
it's to expect the unexpected.
- And I am expecting and excited to be surprised
by what we're going to discover.
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