Imagine an exoplanet with clouds so shiny, they make it literally the shiniest exoplanet ever discovered by humans. Meet planet LTT9779b, which according to a recent study in the scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics is covered in metallic clouds. Located 262 light-years from Earth, planet LTT9779b has an atmosphere made of silicates and metals like titanium. Both these and other details about the distant world were gleaned by the European Space Agency's CHEOPS mission, or the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite. While Earth only reflects about 30% of the light from our star, the Sun, planet LTT 9779 b manages to reflect 80% of the sunlight from its host star.
"Imagine a burning world, close to its star, with heavy clouds of metals floating aloft, raining down titanium droplets," study co-author James Jenkins, an astronomer at Diego Portales University in Santiago, Chile, said in a statement. The study purports to "provide the first steps toward understanding the atmospheric structure and physical processes of ultrahot Neptune worlds that inhabit the Neptune desert."
