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Nell Greenfieldboyce

Clouds made of sand make for a strange kind of rain on this hot planet

An artistic depiction of the planet WASP-107b. Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope suggest this hot gas giant has clouds made of sand. (Klaas Verpoest, Johan Van Looveren, Leen Decin)

A faraway gas giant planet that's famous for being strangely "puffy" appears to have clouds that are made of tiny bits of sand.

The sand likely acts as water does on Earth, falling like rain towards the planet's hotter interior and then evaporating back up to form clouds once more, according to a new report published online by the journal Nature.

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