'Gemstones' found in atmosphere of bizarre scorching-hot 'marshmallow' exoplanet

Astronomers used JWST to map the atmosphere of WASP-17b, a super-puff exoplanet 1,300 light-years away. A new technique called transmission strings revealed a ring-shaped atmosphere with prominent 'gems' where hot winds meet the nightside.

• WASP-17b is 0.8 Jupiter masses but twice as wide — a 'super-puff'
• It orbits in under four Earth days and is tidally locked
• Transmission strings produced a 3D atmospheric map instead of an average
• The research was published Oct. 14 in Nature Astronomy