In this picture, a dancing astronaut seems to be Singin’ in the Iron Rain.
That’s because on one hot, faraway world, it’s always cloudy with a chance of iron rain. That’s the weather forecast from European astronomers who found clouds filled with iron droplets on a Jupiter-like planet, Wasp-76b, 390 light-years away from Earth.
It’s so hot on the sunny side of this planet (2,400 degrees Celsius) that the metal iron turns to vapour.
Scientists think this condenses and cools over the night side of the planet. As it cools it turns back to droplets of metal that fall to its surface. Since the planet’s rotation matches the time it takes to complete one orbit, the same side always faces its sun, so it’s always day on its sun side and night on the other side.
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