JWST observations reveal that the changing atmosphere of brown dwarf SIMP 136 may be governed by just a few underlying processes.

A world 20 light-years from Earth appears to have a much more orderly atmosphere than its constantly changing clouds suggest.

Using observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists at Trinity College Dublin found that most of the atmospheric variability on the brown dwarf SIMP 136 can be traced to just two dominant processes: changes in temperature and changes in the vertical structure of its clouds. Those processes appear to combine into three recurring weather states that rotate in and out of view.