Clouds Of Jewels Sweep Alien Planet

On Earth, people can refer to storms as "raining cats and dogs" and even sing of "raining men" falling from the skies, but never in the wildest dreams did they think jewels can come down in the form of rain. Yet it is possible -- not for the planet Earth but in others.

Space.com reported that powerful winds were able to sweep sparkling, gem-bright clouds through the atmosphere of HAT-P-7b, a giant alien planet outside the solar system. David Armstrong at the University of Warwick in England said that "This is the first detection of weather on a gas giant planet outside the solar system."

The planet, which lies just 1,040 lightyears away from Earth, is 40 percent larger than Jupiter and can complete a lap around its host star every 2.2 days. Because of its extreme proximity, it is tidally locked -- like Earth's Moon -- it presents the same face to its parent star, and its "day side" and "night side" differ vastly in temperature, as well as other characteristics.

Researchers, however, announced that they observed unusual clouds in the atmosphere. Thanks to four years of data from NASA's Kepler telescope, the researchers found that the clouds are made of corundum, which is a rock-forming mineral that incidentally helps form sapphires and rubies.

The planet, which is also considered to be a "hot Jupiter," has shown that atmospheres can consist of unusual substances -- an observation that has been proven in other studies as well. For instance, there have also been hot exoplanets that have lead and glass clouds. The behaviors of the results also show that strong winds circled the planet, transporting clouds from different sides.

Armstrong explained, "The winds change speed dramatically, leading to huge cloud formations building up then dying away. This is the first detection of weather on a gas giant planet outside the solar system."