For the first time ever, a team of astronomers believe they have discovered the first sign of clouds of water outside of our solar system, according to a study.
The water clouds were discovered on the frigid brown dwarf WISE 0855, which is 7.2 light-years away from Earth. The object is similar to gas giants in our own solar system, according to the findings published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“We would expect an object that cold to have water clouds, and this is the best evidence that it does," Andrew Skemer, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at The University of California Santa Cruz, and author of the study, said in a statement.
The “failed star,” which was first spotted by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) in 2014, is too cold and faint to use typical methods used to study brown dwarfs, according to the statement.
Researchers were able to piece the object's infrared spectrum, using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii and Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph over 13 nights.
“Our spectrum reveals the presence of atmospheric water vapor and clouds, with an absorption profile that is strikingly similar to Jupiter,” the researchers said in the study.
According to the study, the spectrum is “high enough quality” to allow researchers to study the chemical processes on WISE 0855, which have already been studied in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
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