Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science Silicate clouds and a dusty ring: JWST looks at YSES-1
Aug 20, 2025
Kielan Hoch, a Giacconi Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute, and Emily Rickman, an ESA science operations scientist, dive into the intriguing YSES-1 exoplanetary system featuring two giant planets. They discuss remarkable findings from the James Webb Space Telescope, including the discovery of a dusty circumplanetary disk around one planet and high-altitude silicate clouds in the atmosphere of another. The conversation also touches on future advancements in imaging exoplanets and the potential revelations from the proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory.
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Unexpected Diversity In A Young Twin-Planet System
- YSES-1 is a 16-million-year-old Sun-like star hosting two directly imaged giant planets at ~160 and ~320 AU.
- JWST revealed a dusty circumplanetary disk around YSES-1b and silicate clouds on YSES-1c, defying expectations.
Long-Lived Dust Around A Massive Planet
- The circumplanetary disk around YSES-1b contains olivine-like dust grains that are unexpected at 16 Myr.
- Such disks usually dissipate in 2–5 Myr, implying moon formation or regeneration by collisions.
Silicate Clouds Where Models Say None Should Exist
- YSES-1c shows high-altitude silicate clouds that models predict should have dissipated.
- This is the first direct detection of silicate clouds on an exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star, challenging atmospheric evolution models.