HD 189733 b: it may rain glass, sideways

Curious facts

1. 01

   Glass rain, sideways

   This gas giant, 63 light years away, is cobalt blue because of clouds laced with silicate particles. Those particles could form drops of glass that, in winds of up to about 8,700 km/h, would fall sideways. Caveat: that is what NASA and ESA propose from the colour Hubble measured; nobody has seen the rain, and the wind figure varies between sources. ¹²

2. 02

   A gas that smells of rotten eggs

   In 2024 the James Webb telescope detected traces of hydrogen sulfide, the gas that smells of rotten eggs. It was the first time it had been found in the atmosphere of a planet around another star. Nobody has smelled it, of course: they are traces. ³⁴

3. 03

   About 900 °C

   Its temperature is around 900 °C. ⁴