Water Clouds Observed Outside The Solar System, WISE 0855 Looks Like Jupiter!

Astronomers have found strong evidence that outside the solar system, there exists water clouds.

Observations done on a frigid object called WISE 0855, which is located 7.2 light years from the planet Earth, showed that there are clouds of water on the so called "failed star." Water clouds are also called water ice. 

"We would expect an object that cold to have water clouds, and this is the best evidence that it does," study lead author Andrew Skemer, an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in a statement released by the university.

But what does this mean? Why is it such a breakthrough? 

According to the scientists behind the discovery, this means that this failed star can be compared to Jupiter. 

WISE 0855 is "five times fainter than any other object detected with ground-based spectroscopy at this wavelength," Skemer said in a different statement. "Now that we have a spectrum, we can really start thinking about what's going on in this object. Our spectrum shows that WISE 0855 is dominated by water vapor and clouds, with an overall appearance that is strikingly similar to Jupiter."

In addition, the findings revealed the effectiveness of the Gemini North telescope. The researchers, used to to study WISE 0855 for a total of 13 nights. They also found that the object's temperature is  minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature at the top of Jupiter's clouds is about minus 225 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Needless to say, seeing how Gemini North helped them achieve this breakthrough, the scientists cannot be any more happier. 

"I think everyone on the research team really believed that we were dreaming to think we could obtain a spectrum of this brown dwarf because its thermal glow is so feeble," said Skemer. "I thought we'd have to wait until the James Webb Space Telescope was operating to do this," he added.