JWST Decodes Brown Dwarf SIMP 0136's Weather Into Three States

Astronomers at Trinity College Dublin used JWST data to show that most atmospheric variability on the brown dwarf SIMP 0136, 20 light-years away, comes from just two processes: temperature changes and shifts in cloud vertical structure. These combine into three recurring weather states that persisted across more than a dozen rotations.

• SIMP 0136 lies 20 light-years away and is larger and hotter than a gas giant but too light to fuse hydrogen
• Principal Component Analysis isolated two dominant drivers: temperature and cloud structure
• Three recurring weather states persisted across more than a dozen rotations
• The method offers a fast first step before computationally intensive atmospheric modeling