James Webb telescope spots dust storm raging on a giant planet nearly 20 times the size of Jupiter

An illustration of a fiery red 'super Jupiter' planet with a raging red dust storm on its surface

Forty light-years away, an extraterrestrial sandstorm rages on a planet orbiting two stars.

Although this might sound like Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine, this sandstorm was spotted on a gaseous world up to 20 times the size of Jupiter. Using the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) powerful detectors, scientists observed not only the sandy clouds but also water, methane and carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere. The observations were published March 22 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.