A devastating sandstorm on a distant world, a planet outside our solar system, was first observed thanks to the remarkable capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

A massive sandstorm was spotted on exoplanet VHS 1256b, which is about 40 light-years from Earth. Dust particles are made up of silicates: these are small grains of silicon and oxygen, which form the basis of most minerals.

The extraterrestrial storm discovered by James Webb is not like the sandstorms found in the arid desert regions of the Earth, and is more like a “stony” fog.

“They look like grains of sand, but much smaller. Silica grains are the size of smoke particles,” explained Professor Beth Biller of the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, UK.

Planet VHS 1256b is a hot young celestial object. “The temperature at the top of the clouds is probably similar to that of a candle flame,” he told BBC News.

Exoplanet VHS 1256b was first spotted by the British Vista telescope in Chile in 2015. It is a “super-Jupiter”, that is, a planet similar to the gas giant in our solar system, but much larger, with 12 to 18 stars in size. times the mass.

It orbits a pair of stars at a great distance – about four times the radius of Pluto’s orbit around the Sun. It takes about 10,000 years for one complete rotation.

Previous observations of VHS 1256b have shown it to be red in color, suggesting that its atmosphere likely contains dust. “This is exciting because it shows how different clouds on another planet can be from water vapor clouds on Earth,” Biller said.